Last Remnant...

It's almost Saint Patrick's Day and I have just barely removed the straggling remnants of Christmas cheer from our hallway.   All the cards had begun to fall off the wall and I was worried that it was past the time of people charmingly remarking, "Oh look, you still have your Christmas cards up." to a somewhat judgmental "Oh. How LONG do you keep these things up anyway?"

Well, I have to say if it weren't for social norms I'd probably keep them up all year, but since Scotch tape is only meant to keep its stick for so long and even the kids' friends were starting to remark on the oddness of our March decor, I've given finally given in. Why do I keep them up so long anyway?  Two simple reasons---I miss my long-lost friends and I'm lazy.

Speaking of last remnants, I have officially reached the last remnants of my brain capacity for the day and am now switching  my brain over into automaton mode. 

(The following should be read with an automatonic/robotic accent) 

I-am-La-ra-and-I-have-no-id-e-a-why-I-am-still-typ-ing. I-guess-I-am-ramb-ling-on-to-keep-my-self a-wake-un-til-Spence-fin-ish-es-his-weird-hist-or-y-home-work.  Fif-ty-"tweets"-ab-out-life-in-world-war-2.  Things-like-"Stup-id-Hit-ler-is-a-big-fat-jerk-face," and-"Life-in-the-con-cen-tra-tion-camp-is-horr-ib-le! I-miss-my-mom-my!"-and-stuff-like-that.  Woo-hoo!  My-dear-son-has-off-ic-ial-ly-turned-off-the-comp-u-ter-and-is-go-ing-to-bed.  This-stup-id-post-will-fin-all-y-end.  Good-night-my-rob-ot-friends! La-ra-out!



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Hypothetical Question....

What if you were randomly just doing your normal bedtime routine with your kids....brushing teeth, saying prayers, reading stories, etc. when randomly one of your kids starts peppering you with a nonstop barrage of questions like:

How can a  reindeer possibly fly?  Birds and bugs fly, but there's no way a reindeer could fly.   And without even pausing for an answer, continuing with wondering how in the world Santa could carry a big enough bag to put all the presents for all the children in the whole world?  It would be too heavy and too big for Santa to fit in his sleigh.   And how could Santa possibly keep track of all the children's behavior in the whole world?   It would be too hard to keep track of that many people.   And then if he did have all those presents how would he be able to know what each child wanted and which stocking to put them in?  etc., etc. 
Then what if after the five minute hypothetical monologue, they conclude with the statement that it was their belief that Santa Claus was a fictional character and that it was really mom and dad who brought all their presents. 

All this hypothetically speaking, in front of two open-mouthed  siblings who had been, until that moment, content and happy believers.  

And in a twist of irony, what if the questioner wasn't the older sibling ruining it for the younger ones where a little bit of tactfulness may have been expected, but instead it was the not-quite-six-year-old spoiling it in very eloquent fashion for the older two? 

Of course none of this really happened and we all know that Santa is very real, but I'm just curious as to what you would have done?  Spin an elaborate yarn of magical tales?  Or just listen quietly and hope they'll forget about it by December? Listen empathetically and try to divert the conversation?  Or just agree with her disbelief and figure it's about that time anyway?  Advice welcome.    




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Happiness is....

...sitting in church seeing, over the course of sacrament meeting, several of my little peeps from nursery waving at me and playing peekaboo from behind the pews.   My heart just melts and I re-realize every week that being the nursery leader is a pretty awesome calling. 

...the youth finishing up the HUGE yearly mulch fundraiser which means that in addition to the teens getting to try their hands at truly hard work, you realize that it also means that Spring is really here!  

...going on a long Saturday afternoon walk with the kids.  There's no rush to go anywhere, so we just dawdle along at their own pace stopping to explore when they feel like it.  It's not heart pumping exercise, but it's therapeutic to be out in nature soaking in the early spring sunshine together. 






So....now it's your turn!  What's giving you happiness this week?  


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Flashback Friday: February 1975

A couple thoughts about this photo of my brother Nate and I:

• We were cute.

• I'm 13 months older, but we look like we're the same size. 

• Having kids that close together sounds hard and to think that my mom was already pregnant (or almost pregnant) with the next one when this picture was taken! 

• I think my kids look more like Glen's side of the family. 

• 70's wallpaper was awesome! 

• My chubby cheeks got an early start in life. 

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My New Favorite Cookbook

Usually I have a short attention span when it comes to cookbooks. I'll find a few recipes that are "my style", then I'm bored with it.  I guess that's why I like checking them out from the library so much.   It's also why I like ward cookbooks so much...there's such a variety of people who submit recipes, that I'm bound to find a few cooking kindred spirits in the bunch.  I look for their recipes and know that if they like it, then there's a good chance I'll like it too. 

This may be a first for me, but I believe that I've found an entire cookbook that is my style; written by 2 cooking kindred spirits.  My friend Denise spotlighted their blog  {Our Best Bites} a few weeks ago on one of her Menu Mondays and weirdly it was the first time I'd ever heard of it, despite its popularity.  I went there and found that practically every single recipe was my style and it lit a fire under me to get cooking again.  While perusing their site, I discovered that they were just releasing a cookbook.  I shopped around for the best price and ordered it on the spot. 

I had to wait a couple of weeks before it was officially released, but my oh my was I in love with this book at first sight.  Pretty much if I were to ever write a cookbook, I would want it to be exactly like this one. 

Large bright photos on each page, tutorials, great down-to-earth recipes, clear instructions, user friendly  binding....every other cookbook author in America should take notes. 

And here are a few of the treasures from there  that we've already made and loved : 

Chipotle Beef Taquitos--five stars

Strawberry Cheesecake Bars--five stars

Chicken and Dumplings--five stars

Now I just need to get in touch with them and let them hire me to be their marketing director.  :) 



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Sick Days and an Ellie Update

(Note:  I wrote this post a week ago, but for some reason never finished it and got it posted.  Ellie is healthy and back-to-school now.)

Ellie has had a rough couple of weeks with illnesses.  First it was an annoying cough.  The kind that's just bad enough, I thought it would  interrupt her day at school, so I kept her home for a few days.  Then, a few days later, it was a stomach bug that kept her out for a day or two.  Then a few days after that it was a fever/respiratory symptoms that lasted for five entire days.  The poor girl was just worn out from fighting off illnesses for so long! 

Between all the school she's missed with her medical testing, medication side effects,  and now this last round of sicknesses...it's a really good thing that there is not a minimum attendance requirement for kindergarten or we'd be in trouble.  Thankfully, she's doing well academically and because there is not a minimum requirement,  she'll be just fine moving up to first grade next year.   

In the meantime, I'm really trying to soak in these bonus days with her at home with Cami and me.  It's been so sweet to see how Cami's and Ellie's relationship has really strengthened through this year


 

And while we're on the topic of Ellie, I'll do another little update on her seizures. Early in our epilepsy journey, our pediatrician told us that treating epilepsy is more like an art than a science, and after nearly six months in the trenches, I couldn't agree more.   The doctor recently asked us to switch her medications over from generic to  brand name.  It's more out-of-pocket expense for us, but we do  feel like it's made a small improvement in the numbers and length of her seizures.  Despite the improvements though, it still feels like we've got a ways to go before controlling them.     The neurologist recently has recommended that we try to increase her dose of the original-horrible-side-effect medication, since it is supposed to be best medicine out there for her specific type of seizure.  We're slowly increasing that again and hoping that her body will adjust better to it this time.  

On another note, it is interesting to see how Ellie has become more aware of her seizures.  She cannot feel when they're happening, but she can often tell when she's had one based on people's reactions to her.  She'll come home and tell me that she had seizure in music class or when they were lining up to go outside, or something of the sort.  I'll ask her how she knows that she's had a seizure and she'll tell me it's because everyone else was lined up and she didn't come and people were calling her name.   Or that they were playing hot potato in music class and she caught the ball and held on to it too long and everyone was saying her name.   One day she even came home really excited because she hadn't had a seizure all day.  When I asked her how she knew that she hadn't, ironically she immediately had a seizure, then proceeded to tell me it's because she did everything she was supposed to right away and no one had to call out to her.  I'm impressed by her matter-of-factness and her powers of observation, but I sure hope we can get these under control before next year when her peers will start to notice the episodes even more. 


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Random Gloats

I'm busting with good, healthy pride on this bright sunshiney morning and I just can't hold in the following gloats a minute longer: 

• I fed my family beef three times in one week---an old fashioned roast in the crockpot, then with the leftovers some beef taquitos, then French dip sandwiches in the crockpot (taquitos and French dip recipes coming soon to the Recipe Shoebox).  My boys, in particular, were extremely happy with random beef kick and hope that the roasts go on sale buy one, get one free again soon.  That's more beef than they usually get in three months' time.

• 

• My nephew, Davin, is only fifteen months old, but already he knows how to perform mouth-to-mouth on poor pathetic animals. 

• I made my own hummus for the first time and really, really liked how it turned out.  (recipe coming soon to the Recipe Shoebox)

• My niece, Bridgette, is showing herself to be quite the  fashionista, well taught by her older cousin, Ellie. 

• Glen just procured tickets for the whole family to Wicked, showing at the Kennedy Center this summer!  Woo hoo!

• My nephew Davin is showing himself to be multi-talented with quite the dramatic piano and vocal duets with Emma. 

• My nephew, Lincoln, at age 2 has better hand-eye coordination than me as a grown adult. He was quite enamored with Adam's Legos and showed quite the knack for building and creating.  Next time the tiny little screw comes out of Emma's glasses, I'm giving this guy a call! 
  

• Yesterday alone, I got 23 new followers on the Recipe Shoebox and 18 new followers on my FHE blog.  Apparently my blogs were both spotlighted on Sugardoodle.net's Facebook page.  I was feeling pretty cool about it, until I saw how many hits I got for the day (over 1300 extra hits over my normal Monday for the Recipe blog, and over 1000 extra for the FHE blog) and realized that that's a pathetically small percentage of people who clicked and decided to follow.   Still, I'm definitely not complaining or anything. Thank you Sugardoodle!  I hope you enjoyed the Chicken Crescents!   :)

Yay for my mommy's blogs! 

• My sister, AnnaLisa, got a cool new job and will be moving back this way.  That will mean that we're back up to four of the eight Crain kids living in the DC area.  We are patiently awaiting the arrival of the remaining hold-outs to make their pilgrimage. 

• Ellie got up to bear her testimony on Sunday, then chickened out.  Glen was gravely embarrassed, since he is a champion of proper testimony bearing, but it did get me to break out of my comfort zone and bear my testimony in her place...the first time in too long. 

• I got in a fender bender yesterday and was nice and polite, despite being annoyed at being hit.  It probably helped that our bumper performed its job perfectly and didn't do any damage other than to my pride,  since I had not expected to have to interact with anyone while I was wearing  my cozy new bathrobe out of the house.

• In a moment of reflection, I've decided to rename myself Lara "Humble", since humility comes so easily to me.  :)

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What the ??????

It's a bird,




it's a plane,





NO......





It's an ARCTIC BLAST!!!!!!!!!!

and a cute little mini Arctic blast following in his father's Communist footsteps! 

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If you do not get this post, then it probably means you're not related to any Crains.    If you are a Crain and don't get this post, then you need to get someone to bring you up-to-speed on some good old-fashioned family lore.  :) 


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FINE PRINT DISCLAIMER:   No mini Communists were harmed in the making of this post.  In addition, I am not actually related to any Communists or Fascists or Socialists or even any out-of-the-closet Democrats for that matter. 




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A Little Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz to Spiff Up Your Day

Once upon a time

there was a man who liked to rhyme. 

He called himself  "Dr. Seuss"

and pretty much he was as silly as a goose.

He wrote books especially for kids

and liked to make up funny words like "zids"

and "zads" and "zizzer zazzer zuzz"

and talk about creatures with a bit of fuzz.

Because of his natural knack

for making kids laugh and cack,

the school likes to celebrate his day of birth

with a whole week of fun and mirth. 

The kids had loads of fun

with extra reading in the sun

and on Friday each and every child,

wild, crazy, meek or mild,

got to be a favorite character

from a book by Seuss or any old merrickter.

Emma wanted to dress as someone smart and fun,
you know kind of like my daughters and son(s),
so she picked Hermione from the book about Harry.
Luckily Hermione is nice and not the least bit scary. 

Now my Adam is a man with a deep seated fear
of standing out in a crowd or causing a leer
I think that is why he chose a more Seussish guy...
the Cat in the Hat, complete with hand drawn bow tie
to be the one he dressed up to be.
Fiddle-dee-dee, Adam is like me.

Ellie is the one who surprised us the most
for we thought she'd dress as Barbie or a princess or even a pretty ghost
But instead she followed Emma's original tram
and declared emphatically  "Hermione-I-am!" 

So Hermione Junior joined in on the fun
although Hermione Senior tried to convince and to cun
that she should be the only Hermione in the house
and that Ellie should be a pioneer, or princess, or mouse. 

Unflappable Ellie couldn't be swayed
so the two Hermiones both stayed. 
In the end the kids in the house were all happy
and went to school looking spiffy and snappy. 

Now although it is a battle well-fought,
now you all know that a poet I am not. 
From there to here, and here to there,
. bad rhymes and poor grammar are everywhere.
And now I will close my silly little epistle
with loads of pictures over which you can whistle.

The End. 

I meant what I said and said what I meant....
that Lara is goofy one hundred percent! 

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Snitched Cakes and the Blue and Gold Banquet

Now that we've re-entered the world of Cub Scouts, I'm finding our calendar getting fuller and fuller with scouting activities, special events, field trips, and regular den meetings.  Adam loves it and is having a great experience and I hope that, one day soon, that I can say I love it too.  Until that day happens, I hope that taking  photos will somehow absolve me from a little of our Scouting neglect.

Here's a little glimpse of his recent Blue and Gold banquet: 

The cake Adam made for the night...

Adam made it completely by himself... the cake,  buttercream frosting from scratch, and the awesome decorations as well.  Too bad it had an unfortunate run in with a certain member of our family who got in BIG trouble for the dirty deed!   

After trimming off that snitched quarter of the cake and redesigning it with some frozen cupcakes to make it look like one giant paw print here's what the cake looked like in the end (pictures taken directly from Ellie's journal entry about the matter)....

I never even noticed the  little mood chart at the bottom of each journal page until I took this picture, but man how it melted my heart when I did see it.  She has the happy face circled for every day.   :)

The banquet food was good (for the tastebuds and as fake mustaches)...

And the table centerpieces were totally beautimous. 

And one of these days when the adult units of this family start re-catching the Scouting bug, maybe he'll actually start receiving some awards to blog about as well. 


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Cool Auntie AL!

So it snowed on Tuesday and the very next day a warm breeze blew in from Utah via Taiwan with the arrival of my little sis, AnnaLisa.   Auntie AnnaLisa was a resident of our basement for an entire year, but left about 8 months ago for a cool job teaching English in Taiwan.  She had a fun and challenging adventure, before returning back to the states a short while ago.  Now she's back in town for an exciting job interview and my kids are totally loving all the fun Auntie attention that gets showered on them when she's here. 

Almost daily trips to 7-11 for slurpees, snuggles on the couch, watching funny videos on her computer, jumping on the trampoline together, someone to tease....it's fun to have Auntie AnnaLisa back again! 

Random tidbit about AnnaLisa:  I was 10-years-old when she was born and I have a vivid memory of my parents disagreeing over what to name her.  One of them wanted to call her Melissa Rose, but for some reason one of them was opposed to the name.  If I remember correctly they came up with the name AnnaLisa after hearing one my fellow contestant's names in the school spelling bee (which I just happened to have won). 

Another random tidbit about AnnaLisa:  Much to the delight of my children, whenever it's her turn to pray, she almost always prays in Russian. 

Another random tidbit:  AnnaLisa is cute and single, and could quite possibly be living in the DC area again soon.   Oh and she also loves going on blind dates. 

(hint hint)


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pent up rage or braggadocio? which do you prefer?

Perhaps I've been a bit too cooped up with all the sick kids in our house over the last few weeks or maybe it's because of the child who randomly started waking us up at night or maybe it's because I stepped on the scale yesterday for the first time in weeks....
Whatever it is, I'm just bubbling over with brewing animosity tonight and can't wait to rant about totally random and pointless stuff.  Grrrr.  Watch me burst forth with rage. 

1.  Internet Explorer---I have deep seated loathing passion for internet explorer and hope that one day it implodes on itself.  Yay for Mozilla Firefox!  Boo for Internet Explorer! 

2.  Beef--It doesn't matter what cut it is, who prepared it, or how many times I try it....I want to like it, but am disappointed every time I try it.  My poor, poor family now considers it the forbidden fruit of foods and pretty much obsesses about how infrequently I serve it to them.  Stupid beef! 

3.  People who block entrances to side streets and businesses when they're backed up in traffic anyway and couldn't go anywhere if they tried.   I consider anyone who can't just stop a few feet back and let people in and out of the side streets as inconsiderate, obnoxious, oblivious, and should have their drivers' licenses revoked.  LEARN HOW to DRIVE PEOPLE!!!!!!

4.  Movies that are supposed to be for kids and are filled with inappropriate innuendos and adult humor.  Boo for "Diary of a Wimpy Kid!" Dumbest waste of time...ever!   

5.  The IRS.  Penalizing an all volunteer organization at an elementary school PTA with a $5000 fine for submitting their tax return late is lame, lame, LAME!!!!!!!  Stupid piece of overblown crappy government entity! 


So, what makes your blood boil?  Feel free to add your own rant into the comments (as long as it's not directed at me, because otherwise I'd have to photoshop a picture of you with horns growing out of your earwaxy ears and send it to the National Enquirer. ) 

And now that I have all that out of my system, we'll return to cute picture collages and my normal braggadocio posting. 

Have a nice day. 


:)

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Winter's Last Hurrah....(hopefully)

After getting a little sneak peek at springtime last week, Tuesday rolled in with a little Arctic blast (and a memory of my brother Peter jumping off the couch).  Once again, it turned out to be more talk and less white stuff, but in the end the kids did end up with a 2-hour delay for school.  I, for one, thought the two hour delay was perfect.  It meant seminary was canceled, which meant we got to sleep in, and it also meant that the kids got a chance to play outside and enjoy the snow before it all melted that afternoon. 

 

And now that they've got that out of their systems, now I'm really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really,really, really, really, really, really....

READY FOR SPRING!!!!

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