wow: wonderful "onusual" weather

corny title. yes :) 

today the weather WOWED me--amazing for michigan--50 degrees on 12-31-10. i ran today in shorts and a t-shirt. the boys rode bike outside in sweatshirts, boots and jeans. there are puddles everywhere. the fog is a deep haze.

in love

a moment of together time
a moment of quiet
a moment of just us
twirling and swirling to beautiful music in ear phones shared
a moment of reconnecting
a moment of true love
a moment of man and wife

all amidst the crazy chaos of our messy kitchen while dinner was being cleaned up with kids playing around us, suckers being broken onto the tile floor, legos being dropped, chocolate being smeared

this is what true passion and love is

i am in love

Egg Rolls

YUMMY YUMMY YUMMY

got this off of a website and made it my own.....and LOVED them.

NEED:

2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon corn starch 

finely shredded white cabbage (i bought pre-shredded in the produce section)
chopped up bean sprouts
a bag of shredded carrots that i chopped up 

egg roll skins found in produce section of grocery store

DO:

Mix soy sauce with corn starch. Set aside.


stir fry garlic a few seconds. add cabbage, bean sprouts and carrots. stir fry until cabbage wilts.


Add reserved soy sauce/corn starch and the vegetables. Cook 1 minute or so until thickened. Remove from heat and allow to cool a little.


Heat oven to 400 degrees.


Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray.


Turn eggroll skin so it looks like a diamond. Put filling in center and follow the directions on the package to roll them up :) Mine were more flat....... I used water on my finger tip to "seal them".


Put the rolls seam side down on the pan.


Lightly spray the egg rolls with the nonstick cooking spray. Bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown.


I gave a quick broil at the end to crisp them a tiny bit more :)

 ENJOY--i had mine with duck sauce!

Merry Christmas :)

christmas eve--pictures to come :)

what a lovely christmas eve day-- :) pictures to come....

boys fought most of the day but we were able to work through it and still enjoy the day

*cleaned up the basement for santa's arrival
*milk coffee
*baked cookies
*found dinosaur bones outside and recreated a t-rex skeleton in the snow
*played the wii
*busy christmas kids' mass
*mexican fiesta with aunt lynda and uncle john
*more wii but this time with aunt l and uncle j
*decorated cookies
*note for santa, along with cheese, cookies and carrots.
*bed for the boys and then lots of visiting for the adults :)

exposure again

exposure therapy again. puke puke puke.

and oh man the puke was not a fluke....turns out that sunday night jack got sick again...for real this time. he threw up and up and up and up. then at 1 am, i checked on luke since he was crying for water and he threw up and up and up. josh slept with jack and i slept with  luke.

it has taken me a few days to think through most of this and i am not even sure i am ready to blog tonight. perhaps another night this week. my anxiety has been out of control lately. my phobia of puke has been more than not okay. even though i am anxious, i am glad for the exposure therapy. odd but true.

a busy day in kindergarten :)

i took a day off from work to be with jack and volunteered in his classroom! it went something like this.....

showed up--got a few directions from the teacher and then used those few directions to organize the other moms/dads (yes the teacher in me is strong....)

grandma linda and i manned the reindeer hat table--way fun!

an hour and a half later...and lots of mess :), i organized clean up......

then off to lunch with jack-0 and his buddies and man did i get an education about 1st grade girls :) (yes jack is in kindergarten....)

during lunch i was able to help the teacher out while jack played.


during rest time i got to see part of alvin and the chimpmunks-cute :)

then i got to see jack be super star of the week and do cool stuff in front of the class :)

we then decorated gingerbread men/ladies, we put them in the oven, set a timer and read a story. 8 minutes later we went to check on the gingerbread men and woah, they were GONE! turns out the ran away and we had to follow the clues to find them! that was a blast.

we headed back to the classroom to finish up the christmas party with a book exchange, a present from grandma helen and to find that santa had visited jack's classroom and left presents for each of the kiddos.

what a wonderful day in kindergarten :) i am so glad i was able to take the day off!

bizarre run in with puke

how bizarre. i went down this morning, mid morning, to help jack do something with his gi joes. when i turned to leave, i thought dang, i need to vacuum again something is on the floor. upon closer inspection it was dried puke! what in the heck! turns out jack must have gotten sick in the middle of the night. there was some on his blanket and on the floor. so odd! he does not recall doing it and i was even sleeping in luke's room last night (another long story about him not sleeping and lots of crying the last few nights)....and didn't hear him.

he was up early this morning. played fine. ate fine. and is acting fine still.

odd. well at least i got another exposure therapy.

luke oh luke

wednesdays jack goes to grandma's in the evening so luke gets US time :) usually we stay home and just eat and then hang out but tonight we took him out for dinner. it was fun to have that alone time with luke and made me think about how much more alone time jack got since he was our first born. we thoroughly enjoyed our time with luke tonight!

a few highlights:

-wrestling on our bed with luke--he was luke skywalker, josh was "java" the hut and i was pricess leia

-luke's quote, mom im gonna get the cat n the hats thingamajigger and shrink you so you can ride in my pocket... 


-sharing salsa at el rancho for supper


-listening to luke talk and talk and talk and talk and talk 


-did i mention we wrestled a lot as the three of us :) 


it was WONDERFUL time with lukie tonight!

A Star is Born

jack had his very first concert on STAGE--he was tickled pink at being on STAGE :)

sorry so blurry :) these are all the kindergartners--not just jack's section

Finding our Tree 2010

one of THOSE days

yesterday was one of those days. in fact as i reflect now, i have to chuckle. it was REALLY one of those days.

we got a bit of snow saturday to sunday so after eating breakfast, etc, the boys and i headed out to play while josh snowblowed. the first thing that went awry was that josh snowblowed a "political sign" that drifted into the driveway (that neither of us knew was there and that i had NOT thrown away yet even though josh asked me too....) and that created quite a hassle for josh.

then we headed over to a neighbor's yard to sled......and turns out that the hill was full of dog poo :S....but i did not notice until we had already sledded and it was way too late............ ha :) so we just continued to sled but when we got home our clothes went right into the wash!!

even though it was 11 and i had my mom in law coming at 1 to make cookies, i desperately needed to get into town to get a "few" groceries....and christmas secret santa presents and some things to put in a box for a soldier's care package. so the boys and i headed in on the icy roads. first stop was taco bell--which was fine....but luke opened my burrito when i was getting water and promptly dropped it on the floor :) then had to re-order food twice because luke was hungry and when we left, i placated jack by getting nuggets at mcd's drive thru since he tried a taco (YAY for jack) but didn't like it..... :)

meijers was just as interesting--luke locked himself in a bathroom stall..... then the store was crazy busy but we made it through. now remember, the boys' coats had poo on them so they are bundled up in sweatshirts, etc and the snow has started to fall hard as we leave the store. the cart got stuck in the parking lot several times, we couldn't remember where we parked and then when we went to shut luke's door, it did NOT LATCH! at this point, i was near breaking into tears. a few fellas in the parking lot tried to help but were not successful.  i trudged the boys back into meijers to buy wd40 but instead called uncle aaron. he lives close to meijer and said he would be on his way. i took the boys back out to the car and continued to try and shut the door--okay finally got it shut! then when we got home the cherry on top of the entire trip was that i FORGOT to print the pictures for jack's superstar board this week--which is one of the main reasons we went in :S

mom b and i started to bake and make treats..... i had a peanut butter ball recipe from lynda but turns out that i accidentally quadrupled the butter in the recipe AND the recipe was incomplete...... :) sigh. so i played around with flour, etc and turned them into cookies and guess what, they turned out decent :)

josh is a saint--he went back in on bad roads to get the pictures printed.

my "one of those days" was long and tiring but i survived :) and now today, i think it is FUNNY :)

glad i can laugh at myself!

almost didn't make my date

a date a date i almost didn't make a very important date!

well josh and i had planned our date day on saturday for about two weeks....i called lynda and john and set up them to take the boys..... and then on friday at daycare, luke puked--twice. then puked when he got home. after throwing up, he rebounded quickly but my anxiety almost got the best of me. i almost let it keep me from my date. luke ate awesome after getting sick, he was running around and seemed 110% on saturday but my colleagues have all had flu at their houses and i was consumed with anxious thoughts. fortunately, josh and my sister convinced me otherwise.

we dropped the boys off at john and lynda's house and took off for our important date.

first stop--SURPRISE--we pulled into verizon and josh had me pick out a DROID 2 phone! :) yay for a surprise christmas present :)

2nd stop--the public museum to see bodies revealed. i have seen this exhibit before when we lived in mn but josh had never seen it. it was so interesting!!

3rd stop--the crushed grape--a wonderful specialty shop that sells beer and wine. i was able to pick up a few bottles of wine and also got john a 6 pack of specialty microbrews for christmas...i can post that since i gave it to him already :)

4th stop--the movie theatre to see harry potter and the deathly hollows part 1 and eat popcorn :)

when we got out the weather was changing....the rain was turning to slush and was freezing....so we decided instead of a big dinner as we had planned, we would grab something quick and get home.....

5th stop--panera bread for a fast dinner

then we went home :)

the boys were in good hands--john and lynda played the afternoon away with the, spoiled them rotten and brought them home to bed :)

i am glad we got out for our date and i did not let my anxiety get in the way...too much

how much?

i wonder how much google, facebook and other applications online that track your movements know about me (and others for that matter)....we search, we like, we friend, we click off of advertisements, we "tag", we "ask jeeves", we use switchboard.com, we write, we post.

this came about for me today as i clicked onto tom's facebook page--i have not been there in quite  a while (i guess i have been doing better and have not felt the strong urge to check in on him....). somehow tom "got" his  page updated to the "new profile" (now remember the page is deactivated but facebook maintains it as a deceased person's page)...and the pictures that showed up across the top define him now (yes the pictures are all that we have "tagged" him in). it has his headstone, the beautiful shadow box the firemen made for ben when tom died, the firetruck ladder up at his funeral, the sand writing from rachel with his dob and dod, and a picture of ben from when he was little. ironic? yes i think so. just made me think that facebook could tell me who tom is these days...... gone with all that is left are memories.

i have been doing pretty good. i worry about my loved ones as we near our 2nd holiday season without tom and grandma and our first without my grandpa. i know others are not quite as strong right now. i pray for us to come together and unite our family strength.

mmmm pineapple salsa

chop fresh pineapple
mix with lime juice (fresh squeezed is best but i had none and my bottle ran out so i used lime and lemon), a tid bit of honey, finely chopped peppers (i used poblano today but you can also use jalapeno, etc), and finely chopped red onion. mix and serve on top of pork. it was amazing! i have made it with mango too :)

home for the holidays

wonderful surprise

we, sarah, mom b and i, have a tradition. it started a few years back when we met up in chicago for a weekend. i traveled from mn and they came from mi. she treated us to a weekend of fun, including the experience of seeing the phantom! it was incredible! the next year sarah totally surprised us by having us meet her at work, dressed up, and then took us to dinner and to see the nutcracker--which was also fabulous :) last year was my turn. i got us tickets to see white christmas in lansing--which was amazing.

so now, it was mom b's turn again. she surprised us back in october with tickets to see south pacific on broadway grand rapids--and we had a ton of fun. she decided that it was not close enough to christmas to count as the entire present so on friday, she told us to be dressed nice and ready to go....somewhere. turns out, she had tickets for us to see point of grace, performing with phillips, craig and dean, for their christmas concert! we had 2nd row seats--the only people in front of us were four who "won" the seats after we got there by texting the radio show host! it was INCREDIBLE. the concert was beautiful, fun and inspiring! it was a WONDERFUL SURPRISE!

yay :)

now what will sarah come up with next year.......

lyrics

i am horrible with lyrics to songs...i sing whatever i hear and what i hear is not usually accurate! i have been teased, sweetly of course, my entire life for singing "lyrics" :) both boys love music but jack is our super music lover. he wants it on all the time :) i have to crack up as he sings....because it is just like me! instead of "lover lover lover, you don't treat me no good no more"....he sang "lubber lubber lubber..." but unlike me, as he listened more and more, he caught on to the correct words and then asked...oops! :) turns out he is a major listener! he listens ALL the time..... something for me  to keep in mind!

double shot

flu shots are among us in the boyer household.... :) both boys had to have a double shot of dose since they did not have any shots last year.

flu shot experience part 1:
jack--wiggled, pushed the nurse away and then moved his leg as he got his shot. cried so loud he could have cleared out the waiting room. cried all the way home and then proceeded to limp for 3 hours......

luke--tiny bit of crying. done fussing before he left. fine.

flu shot experience part 2:
jack--wiggled, pushed away the nurse, almost kicked the nurse in the face and moved his leg as he got the shot. cried so loud he could have cleared out the waiting room. cried part of the way home then proceeded to limp for an hour....

luke--fussed a bit more than last time but not too bad. went first to show his big brother that it was not too bad. only limped and fussed when he got home and jack told him his leg hurt.....

josh took them both times :)

100%

you all know me......and many of you know me extremely well so it should not surprise any of you that i work hard, even when i don't have to :) i had 100% in my grad class coming into the big paper..... "BIG"...meaning that i probably made it bigger than i had too.... :) but even with that 100%, i wanted to have a kick-butt paper...it was after all worth 20% of my final grade! so i worked extremely hard, did a lot of research, read, reread and read it again, took a personal day off of work to perfect it, had my sis in law and josh edit it, AND turned it in  the 16 page paper early AND got 100% on it :) i am pleased with myself! i am even more pleased to realize that i might be able to expand the paper into my THESIS PROJECT! which  means all that hard work will pay off again :)

yes. i am an overachiever and i feel great about it :)

thankful, truly thankful

i am thankful for all of my family and friends--yes people, that is you :)

i just wanted to let you know :)

Photo Journey of our Thanksgiving

the boys and i were up early to eat, drink coffee (milk coffee for the boys) and prep our turkey!

such good helpers!

and so darn cute!

 my hunter. he did not bag a deer this morning..... bagged a paper :)

then we "played" muscle man while playing on the computer, listening to music on you tube and having a dance party

and milk coffee

we watched the macy's thanksgiving day parade on tv--first time the boys were excited to do this :)

my handsome hubby in his "no shave november" beard....

black friday ads with uncle aaron while the ladies cooked.....

dad b

prep work for the sweet potatoes

gorgeous picture of pregnant aunt sarah

my grandma johnson's china--GORGEOUS! i am so happy to have it. the silverware is also her good silver!

love birds

my honey and his huge leg!

kids table :) they insisted they get china and a table cloth!

after the turkey, we built a ginger bread house!

luke loved aunt lynda's boots!