Bad Marshall- but good idea none the less.

We bought 4 frozen turkeys a few months back because it was a "good deal." We decided to free up space in our deep freeze and cook a turkey for Sunday tomorrow. Tiff LOVES raw meat and often talks about how it feels between her fingers, how the blood captivates her affinity for handling the boney, cold mass.

We argued about who was going to prepare the turkey today, since she wanted to do it so bad. She wrestled and fought at the thought of sharing this event, until she reluctantly gave me the task, due to her unselfish nature.

I got out the turkey, stripped it from the wrapping. I began investigating options to locate the randomly packaged accessories "replaced" back in the turkey. She clung behind my shoulders in amazement, eager to pounce in on the action and participate. I assured her that I could handle it and thanked her for sharing the experience with me. Brown, thick juice spewed and squirted from the butt of the turkey. After clapping w/ joy, she gagged playfully- pretending to be disgusted at the surprise. I smiled enjoying her sense of humor and reminded her that it was a gravy packet; to which she beamed with delight, licking her lips at the thought. I proceeded to reach in to discover what magic may still remain from within the beast.

To my surprise and wonder I slowly pulled a "LONG healthy, boney neck" out of the turkey and displayed my successful find for Tiffany's approval. After a round of high fives and a nod of encouragement from Tiff, she sighed wishing perhaps that she had initially volunteered for the task. After all, she could have been basking in the glory of discovering "the LONG neck" herself. I continued.

Tiff enjoys events like these more than anyone could know. This turkey neck along with the collection of other accessories, pleased Tiff so much that I decided to surprise her with this display in the fridge for Sunday morning. I added a touch of personality- something like what happened to Frosty the Snowman before he came to life. Though such a dream may not come true for her, I hope it will still inspire as much love and happiness. I will be at early Sunday meetings and Tiff will be getting the kids breakfast around 8am. This will be a pleasant find indeed.

She doesn't know about this great surprise yet, but I hope she finds it to be a token of my love for her.

Hope you have a great day Tiff,

Good Mom

Yesterday I was talking to my sister on the phone and we got on the conversation of "perfect blogs." You know the ones where everything is picture perfect? Kids always look adorable with cute clothes and hair combed, house looks perfect, blog writer is perfectly upbeat. I don't want to be a downer, but REALLY? Then I proceeded to joke about my blog and how my kids break windows, eat deodorant, drink loads of chocolate syrup, and run around shirtless. Don't get me wrong, we have our moments where the boys look cute, the house is clean (that doesn't happen too often :) ), and everything is running smoothly. But those aren't really the moments that I am going to remember, and they often seem far and few between.
I swear my boys have 200% more energy than most other kids their age. They are constantly on the go. Anyone who is around us often enough can attest to this. Sometimes I envy those moms whose kids will stay close and they don't have to chase them all over.
Today I had one of those good mom moments. I was talking to my mom on the phone and had undressed Rowan to get him ready for the bath. Yes, it's after noon and he's just having a bath. I kept his diaper on and talked to my mom for about 10 minutes. In that time, Rowan proceeded to find a marker and color on his chest, take his diaper off, find this sweet red beaded necklace, and a cookie dough poptart. He was downstairs jumping on the couch in his new attire. Yep, one of those good mom moments.

see tiff run

I posted this on my other blog as well, but I know not everyone reads it, so I thought I would post it here too. Sorry for the duplicate post if you do read both.

Running. I'm not the biggest fan, but I do enjoy it.
Goals. I'm not great at keeping them, but I like to make them.
Half Marathon. Yep, I'm doing one.

Crazy? Maybe.
Want to follow my journey? (Please! I could really use the support.)
Click here to see tiff run.

Fish Face

Now that's talent.

Road Trip

This last weekend, we headed to Boise to watch my niece Moura at a regional swim meet. We don't get to see my sister's family very often, maybe once or twice a year, so it was fun to see them.


We headed out Friday afternoon and it's a bit longer drive to Boise than what I have done before. 5 1/2 hours without stops, so it took us about 7 hours total. We got there Friday, and checked into our hotel. Avry brought her 3 girls, and my mom and dad were there as well.
At about 1:30 am, some alarm starting going off that woke us all up. Marshall started messing with the alarm clock, realized that's not what it was, and then went to see if it was the thermostat. Just then, a voice came over an intercom saying there was an emergency and to proceed to the nearest exit. It said not to take the elevator. All the while, this loud siren sound was beeping over and over, and the message was being played repeatedly. Nerve wracking to say the least. Panic set in as I thought about how we were on the 11th floor, the very top floor. We pulled the boys out of bed and headed for the stairs. 11 flights of stairs is a lot when you are carrying a child who is almost 40 lbs.






We were evacuated until 2:30 am and then let back into our rooms. We found out the next morning that someone had been playing with the sprinklers in the parking garage and it set the alarms off.
Saturday, we headed to see Moura swim. I did swim a bit when I was younger and then more competitively in High School. The year I qualified to swim 100 yd breast stroke at state, we were at this pool in Boise. I don't really remember it too well though. Moura is awesome, and I've never seen such young kids swim so well. That girl is ALL legs too. She just barely turned 10 a few months ago, and is already standing at 5'3". She was at least 6 inches taller than most kids her age.



After a few hours, the boys were completely burnt out, so we went back to the hotel for a nap. Then we met up with everyone at the mall. We didn't bring a stroller, so we rented one of the mall ones. My niece Charlise had lots of fun pushing the boys.


I also had my first go at Sephora, a mega makeup/beauty store. I could have spent hours in there just looking. I think it's a bit unfair that Boise has a Sephora but we don't have one in Salt Lake?!
After that it was off to the cheesecake factory for dinner. Super yummy!


Sunday we went and watched Moura swim one of her last races and then started on the trek home. Because we have such fantastic luck, our car wouldn't start at a gas station when we stopped. (Have I mention that I hate all vehicles lately?) We got someone to jump us, but I guess the battery wasn't the problem and it still wouldn't start. Out of frustration, Marshall moved the battery around a bit and the car magically started. I think some sort of wiring is loose. We made it home ok though and had a great time!

Deodorant

This is how I found my deodorant the other day. Do you think he liked it? My guess is no, because he didn't go back for seconds.