Brigham City Temple

We were able to go through the Brigham City Temple with the kids before it was dedicated.  All who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or of young age can walk through the temple, but once it's dedicated, only members with a recommend of the church may enter.

I also got to visit with my aunts, Liz and Bentley.  We had a nice lunch with good  conversation.  I also took home some Brigham City Peaches with which I've been making some delicious smoothies with ever since.  Thanks gals.

Furniture!

Our Front Room got a new look.  We call it the Mod since Mat and I talked about putting mid- century Modern Furniture in it. The kids with their listening ears have shortened it to "the mod" and now we all know what room we're talking about. We only need to finish our coffee table and then it will give it a sense of completion.  There are also a few art projects we want to put on the wall, but that will take some time.

Here are a few pictures:

We ordered way back in July! They make it in China and then ship it over. I had to give Mat the unpacking play by play because he had wished so badly he was here to unpack it.  He's been very excited.

Mat designed his lamp --this is him putting it together

Finished Lamp Product

Counter weight

Another lamp he made too

Eames Chair--with the graininess of my photo, you would think that it is right out of the 60's!

Barcelonas

Couch

This is originally supposed to be for firewood, but I'm using it for blankets.  We have 1 paned glass we need to get rid of in this room so they will be a necessity.

The whole room together- forgot to feature the red rocker with the sheep skin.



These Beauts are settling in our family room.

Couch with my family on it--priceless

No Thank You Note

Rather sad, but it's Becket and when you know him, you sort of shrug your shoulders and say "Oh Becket!"

Oh The Timing! Embarrassing.

So, I hadn't showered for two days because, by golly, I was going to get a run in and color my hair before I showered. Selfish, I know.  I really wasn't smelling too good after my run, but I was onto coloring my hair.  I use foil, so it looks really strange when I get my hair all painted.  It ends up looking like this:



I guess I should have mentioned how tired I was, but you probably could have already guessed it from the photo.

I'm having a gay old time, watching the beginning of my Parenthood episodes and painting when all of a sudden my phone rings and the ID is Canyon View Elementary.

This could mean one of three things
1) The district is sending out a massive announcement (good)
2)  A teacher is calling to tell me something (not good)

3) Someone missed the bus and I would need to go in (really not good)

Hopeful, I was guessing the first, but after detecting the sobs in the background of the phone, one of my children had missed the bus. 

Secretary: "Uh. Hi. Mrs. Harris? I have Gretchen here and she missed the bus.  She is rather upset. Are you able to come get her?"

Thinking, thinking, thinking.  Am I able to come get her? No.

Me: "Uh. Well, yes and no. Yes, I will come get her, but no, I'm not going into your building. (Thus I begin my explaining) Funny story secretary, (give a little chuckle) I'm coloring my hair and I have foil in my hair and I'm looking sorta like an astronaut at this point. May I call you when I'm close, and you can just send her out?"

Secretary smiling: "Yes, I'll do that Mrs. Harris."

I wait for the other kids to get home hiding on the side of my house as to not embarrass myself.  

Micah is hysterical coming off the bus because she watched through the window of the bus her sister being left behind.  What should of happened --Micah is supposed to wait for Gretchen.  Teacher is to only send her with Gretchen.  Gretchen will only get on the bus if Micah is with her. What ruins the plan is when none of the above is followed and Micah gets on the bus with her best friend's sister and Gretchen is left empty and frantic searching for her little sister.  It's a nightmare to an organized, rule follower, 2nd grader.  It's a nightmare to me too. To anyone.

We head to the school. looking like this:

I send Becket in to get Gretchen which takes the dear boy a whole ten minutes to decide how to open the office door after hours.  I am than forced to wave to the dear parents passing by as I inch up my head above the visor and out of sight.

Ahhhh. Let's not do that again.

Once Gretchen heard it wasn't her fault, she lit into Micah, letting her know the proper protocol for after school.

Not the Fame I was Going For

So, if you want a good laugh for the day, watch this video. It's always fun to look like a dork on camera isn't it? Who wouldn't want to be the model getting her eye patched? It's so attractive, yet some of my best work! You can watch this and other videos on ehow.
Little Background info: eHow asked Mat for his ophthalmic expertise to answer some questions that their viewers kept wanting to know. They came up to his Salt Lake City office to film him. They didn't have a model so the default unfortunately goes to me. Whee! Mother of three, running errands all day who needed to wash her hair. Sorry all you internet video watchers looking for a professional. I'm not a professional and it shows. I was just trying to keep from not laughing.

How to Apply an Eye Patch -- powered by ehow

or this one

How to Reduce Darkness Under Your Eyes With Zinc Oxide -- powered by ehow

If you wondered

Just in case you wondered if our Micah was still falling asleep in odd places? (Sure you haven't so consider this an update)



She is and probably will be forever.  Hope it's not on her wedding day.

Previous sleeps

Want to Know My New Favorite Thing?

This item deserves a post all to itself because it has changed my life forever.

Let me just throw this out there--

Have you ever been sitting at a soccer game in the heat of the day wanting an ice cold beverage to sip? I do all the time, except I bring my water bottle with loads of ice to the game only to find it melted in 20 mins and the game lasts an hour.

The Eddy Camelback will change your life.  It keeps water and ICE cold for hours.  In fact, I put ice in it the previous day and the next morning it still had ice.  It's a pretty penny, but worth it if you like your ice.

Presenting the picture



Bless you camelback.

Colorado Springs

I picked up Mat in Colorado Springs, CO coming from Haiti. Why? Because Mat's brother and his family live there and we thought it would be a great time to visit over the Labor Day holiday. They moved there the same time we moved back West.  We had a good time with them on the East coast and the cousins are very tight not to mention the same age. Jocelyn is also an excellent cook and I always gather many recipes after I visit, which I will share at the bottom of this page.

After a yummy breakfast, we drove up to the top of Pike's Peak



Very chilly up there, and there is a brake check half way down the mountain. It is quite a climb.


They live on a ranch with 5 acres of wilderness and wild life. It's beautiful. Mat sorta gotta a gut ache from Haiti, hence that's why he is holding his sides. 

Becket was free from chores and school, so he was one happy child and cracking us all up!

Next, we went to Manitou Springs, a hippie town and very quaint. You know how I love my hippie towns!


They have a spring in the sidewalk where you can taste soda water. It was fun to see the kid's reaction when their tastebuds got a taste of the bubbly.


Fitting seeing how his new Mountain bike is almost the same size.


I wasn't kidding. He got it just before the trip and he goes biking every chance he has.You should have seen me try to put in onto the car.  I came up to the handle bars.


The have some arcades for the kids around the corner too.




Onto the recipes:
Pumpkin Pancakes with syrup. Sorry to make you see double, but these are good if you can read it.

Also a keeper, for my donut party in the Fall.


No Noodle Lasagna for those of you who have zucchini left--this is awesome.

For the noodle layer: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray, arrange zucchini slices and season with salt and pepper. Bake zucchini slices for 5 minutes on each side, then remove from oven. Set zucchini slices aside and lower oven temperature to 375 degrees. 2
For the meat sauce layer: In a large non-stick skillet, cook meat until it’s browned. To the skillet, add the veggies, seasonings, and the entire jar of spaghetti sauce. Simmer for about 10 minutes, (or until veggies are de-thawed/begin to soften), stirring occasionally. 3
For the cheesy layer: Mix the cottage cheese and parmesan cheese together, ( this can be done right in the cottage cheese container!) 4
Put it all together: Spray a 9×13 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Begin by spreading 1/3 of the meat sauce in the bottom of the pan. 5
Follow meat sauce with a layer of zucchini slices, followed by a layer of cottage cheese. Repeat the layers until casserole dish is full. 6
Finish it off: Sprinkle the mozzarella evenly over the top. Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour. 7
Remove foil and bake or broil another 5-10 minutes until cheese is browned. Remove from oven and let rest for about 10 minutes before slicing, and serve warm! Ingredients For the Noodles: 6 large Zucchini, cut lengthwise into 1/8 inch strips1 For the Meat Sauce: 1.25 lb Lean ground turkey meat 1 large Onion, diced 2 cups Fresh or frozen broccoli 2 cups Fresh or frozen cauliflower 2 cups Fresh or frozen chopped spinach 1 25oz jar of spaghetti sauce 1 tbs Garlic powder or 1 clove garlic, minced Pinch Salt and pepper, or to taste Optional Seasoning: 2 tbs of Italian Seasoning For the Cheese Layer: 1 16oz container light cottage cheese or light ricotta cheese 1/2 cup Grated parmesan cheese 3/4 cup Shredded mozzarella cheese Note: If you don’t want to use zucchini for the ‘noodles’, you could also use a large eggplant, cut lengthwise into 1/8 inch strips, or 1 box no-boil lasagna noodles! 7 WWP+*

The New Car, Queen Mum

Baby Doll was laid to rest, Saturday, August 18th, 2012.  She was buried at CarMax for a surprisingly good price.  They saw the beauty in her, I knew they would. May your organs go to serve other cars.

With that said, meet our new car, the Queen Mum.  She is England born and with the past Olympics in England, we  I found the name fitting. We adopted her with love at first sight after seeing her extreme technical skills on the LandRover Technical Course. After one test drive on the, Mat was giddy. Giddy might be an understatement. I think this sporty car will take us where we need to go.

She even comes with a winch, just in case I need to pull some 2nd grader out of the mud when I drop the kids off at school.

Funny story. I overheard Becket saying to his cousin Danny: "Our car can pull things out of mud...it can pull trees out of mud...cars out of mud.  It can EVEN pull MUD out of Mud."Love how modest kids can be when you get something new, but I thought the mud out of mud was quite humorous.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the quiet engine, the reliability of it starting, the doodads/gadgets and the trusty reversing screen.  I don't love that there isn't as much compartment storage as Baby Doll and that I have a panic attack whenever the kids eat in the car, it's so clean and smells nice, unlike our past love. I'm sure that will wear off in a month, but so far I have washed it twice which is more than I did for Baby Doll.

Our recent drive to Colorado wasn't too bad when you've got the Queen Mum's owners manual to brush up on.



Dogs ride nicely too!



Micah was thrilled to be able to roll down her window and we are on the umpteenth time for giggles from the backseat when she plays with her window.

If you want to--watch this video that my mom sent me. She was obviously inspired because she doesn't even know we named our car the Queen Mum and here she is sending me a video about her. The Fwd text from the email: This is an absolutely amazing piece of art work . . . to see the transition from child to now is fascinating . . . I could see images of her ‘ancestry’ . . . Queen Mary, her grandmother, and Queen Elizabeth, The late Queen Mother . . . there was also a glimour of Princess Margaret, her sister in there . . . worth the watch! http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=E8nJhG1xE5o

Haiti

Mat's trip to Haiti.  Pictures speak louder than words. Warning: Graphic Photos

Medical Student who assisted him





Dr. Call



The community













Tumor growing behind this young girl's eye



Anthrax was thrown on this beautiful girl's face



After Mat patched her up












Woman pleading with God to help her son



After surgery



Unfortunately they did not have enough time to help everyone and when word gets out that there is free healthcare, people show up by the truck loads in hours.  With two surgeons, Mat and Dr. Call were able to help twice the people, but unfortunately they had to turn many away. Haiti isn't the best nor safest place to visit, but there is a need.