Number One Reason to Blog...

THIS!

Introducing my 278 page blog book spanning my actual blog from 2007 to 2009 with additional emails and pictures going back to July of 2004 when Bekah was born. How awesome is that!! I now have an amazing compilation of our family history since our family started. I am feeling a little bit giddy about this. :) I made the book through blurb dot com, a website that can "slurp" your blog into a book format and then let you tweak it to perfection. Yay yay hooray! THIS is the reason to keep a blog!

On another unrelated note...this morning I got Beau out of bed, took off his shoes (his braces), carried him downstairs and then finally got a good look at his face to find this:I mean this: (what a ham, he wasn't in the mood for a picture this evening...oh and the band aids are just for fun. He has owies on his knee but wanted the band aids to go on his arms)EEK! I think he got bit by a vicious mosquito last night right on his eyelid. His eye isn't red or even the slightest bit pink...he just looks like Quasi-Beauto. It hasn't bothered him at all, but Rus keeps wanting me to give him drugs because it's disturbing to him. Hopefully tomorrow it's better. (Bekah getting in on the action, much to Beau's pleasure).

Rus Wednesday

(You almost thought I was going to miss it, didn't you...)
Winter 2002, MLK Day Weekend.
Rus, boyfriend of less than one month, his cousin Tom and I loaded up in the truck and headed east. It was a three-day weekend, why not go visit/meet Rus's parents? When we got to Albuquerque Rus said, "It's only another thirty minutes now." I was introduced to the mess called the Big I, a really big mess at that time because it was still under construction. I saw the tall downtown buildings and the mall and I'm sure I noticed Target. We drove under the shadow of the Sandia mountains and I learned that Sandia means "watermelon" and at sundown the range catches fire and resembles the deep reds and greens of a watermelon. We drove through the canyon, turned off, and found ourselves on a stretch of two lane highway where Rus promised that the police rarely are out because it's the border of two counties. He drove eighty in a forty-five to prove it, I'm sure. (Cop's kids. Hmph.)
We turned off again on an even narrower road that took us up a sharp hill. "Heartbreak Hill," Rus informed me. A mile away we turned off on a dirt road, and a mile after that we turned again onto his family's property. You know that "you know you're a redneck if?" joke? (If directions to your home include, "now turn off the paved road and...")
Honestly all I remember about that first night is how cold I was - I slept like a frozen frost bitten log. I don't remember greeting his parents or sister or brother, but man, oh man having been a part of his family for years now I'm sure I could tell you verbatim how it all went. Rus did tell me later that everyone was on their best behavior because they didn't want to scare me off.
Now the part you've been waiting for - the good stuff - the dirt - Rus's parents had this saying that they offered readily almost like a greeting - "Back rubs lead to front rubs!" Rus told me about this before we went on the trip, probably while I was giving him a back massage (where no front rubbing was present, I promise), and he was determined to rub my back in his house in front of his parents. I think I even played along just for grins and giggles and so Rus could get the evil-eye-looking-over-the-glasses from his dad. And of course for the massage.
The best part of the trip came when we went to meet Rus's uncle Spencer. Spencer was a big man. Big. He had really poor health stemming from diabetes and was mostly confined to a super-sized electric reclining chair. He was infectiously cheerful and funny and just ten minutes with him made you feel like you were best friends. Actually, ten minutes with him had him introducing me to a member of the stake presidency as "Rus's Fiance." Fiance. Remember the part about dating less than a month?
Visionary, I guess...the man was just knew.
It was after that weekend that I knew I was in big trouble with Rus. He had a seriously terrific family and I might have fallen in love with them first. Sshh...don't tell Rus. Oh never mind, he won't believe you anyways, he says his family is crazy and me loving them (and him) is a sign of an inferior brain...A favorite Rus-ism is "I'm the smart one here, because look who I married and look who she married." Cute, huh.
And now eight and a half years after meeting his family for the first time, I can still say that I am immensely blessed to be a part of such a fun, caring, crazy family!

Day One

Me with Jacob, summer 2007, completely irrelevant...

There's something particularly satisfying about rising to a challenge. In my case it's my sister Amy's four week challenge to raise money for her three day breast cancer walk. Each day for four weeks I have to drink 48 ounces of water, exercise 45 minutes, eat 2 fruits and 2 veggies, not eat unhealthy snacks, fried foods, soda or alcohol or sweets, not eat after 8 pm, spend fifteen minutes reading something motivational (does Hunger Games count?), record one journal entry, express sincere appreciation and work towards one personal goal.
Phew.
I'm not sure how I'm going to do, but I am excited to see the healthy person I'll be after four weeks of trying. The two biggies for me are no sweets and 45 minutes of exercise. My sweet tooth is demanding and so are my kids, which leaves me with one guaranteed slot of time to exercise: 5:30. AM. Bleck.
But I am happy to note that today, so far, I have exercised and have drunk about half of my water and have had two fruits and I haven't had anything sweet or unhealthy. And look - I'm doing my journal entry and you (lucky sucker) get to read it. :)
Now just cross your fingers and keep the smell of cookies from wafting my way. I'll be avoiding people like me - the ones who bake at the drop of the hat and then want to share. Darnit I'm turning into an anal person with a clean house and fridge full of veggies! AAHH!

Rus Wednesday

One of my favorite pics of Rus (with Nichole and Marcy in the Background) at BlueRidge, AZ

I first met Rus when my roommate Kat invited him and his cousin Tom over for dinner after church in our Institute ward in Flagstaff. My first impression of him was "scruffy redneck," and while it was accurate, it was also incomplete. But before I get off on a tangent, what I really wanted to write about today was cars. Vehicles.
I'm going to tell the story this way:
One day my mom went garage sailing and found this "ganga" (great deal) in the form of a small white Cadillac pimped out with a red leather interior. She called it the Love Car.
Because of the color.
When I went off to college, being the youngest (and most favored) child, I was sent away with the Caddy. More than a year later this Caddy found itself with a busted heater-core-something and no one to fix it.
Enter Rus - F150 Redneck Man.Rus, a recent acquaintance and grease monkey at the local Jiffy Lube had been prepped for this moment by years of dying cars driven to their demise by his sister Katie. He knew how to deal with problem engines and had the tools and friends get things running. The vision of Rus and Clint alternately wedged into the front seat of my car (that's where you fix the heater core) in - um - creative positions will forever be burned into my memory. They worked their magic - my car ran - and I think Rus even got cookies or something out of the deal. Not to mention a warm fuzzy place in my memory.
Now, Rus's F150 was a beauty - it had an alternate fuel system where it could run on propane. It was really, really cool. And manly. Months after my Caddy experience I found myself on a date with Rus, (which was following several other dates), driving up a mountain in the snow in his truck. We made it to the top with only one incident (Clint and a winch fixed that one), and it was then that something curious happened. Rus asked if I wanted to drive. His truck. Down the mountain. In the snow.
I think that's when I knew this whole thing was getting serious. Men don't just hand over the keys, you know. So I drove it and I loved it.
So many of my memories of dating Rus and being a newlywed include that truck. He drove me up a mountain in that truck to propose to me with two dozen roses and a picnic dinner. He drove me to NM to meet his family for the first time in that truck. We went spotlighting in it. We probably even made out in it. (Probably?) He sold it so we could have some extra money soon after we had Bekah.
You know how cars that are part of Big Events (like marriage) always hold a special place in your heart (oh...you didn't?), well the Caddy and the F150 hold a special place in mine, even though they are long gone.
They remind me of new love...and that is a whole batch of good memories.

Wooden Transformer

I'm going to call this one "Jacob's Challenge." He was asking me all weekend to make him a wooden Transformer, and each time I told him I couldn't, it wasn't possible. Then last night I pulled out my sketch pad and doodled it out and discovered that if Jacob approved the design maybe we really could make a wooden Transformer. He is rudimentary, mind you, but Jacob loves him...enjoy the pictures!
Here he is as the Man:And now Jakey is turning him into a car:The dowels come out - Jacob calls them his guns. He wants to paint him yellow and green. If the wheels turned easily we'd really be in business...But I'm satisfied...and tired. :)

The Challenge

My sister Amy is taking part in Arizona's Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the Cure...where she will walk sixty miles over three days with thousands of other men and women in an effort to raise funds to support breast cancer research. This amazing event will begin on November 12, 2010.
To participate in the walk, Amy has to raise $3000.00 by November 1st. Here (in her own words) is how she plans to do that:

Hi,

Amy Dries here...

This year I am initiating a 4 week wellness challenge. The wellness challenge consists of setting goals and keeping track for 4 weeks. This is a way to help me raise money for the Susan G. Komen 60 mile walk. I am also excited to issue the challenge as a way to fight cancer by living healthy lives. I would love it if you would participate and invite others to join. Simply click on the Walk for the Cure box (top right of my page) and donate $50 per participant ($100 for couples). The wellness challenge is explained in depth in a word file that can be emailed to you. Here are the ten main daily goals of the challenge:
1. Drink 48 oz. water
2. Exercise 45 minutes
3. 2 fruit and 2 veggies
4. No soda, alcohol, unhealthy snacks or fried foods
5. No sweets
6. No eating after dinner/8pm
7. 15 minutes motivational reading
8. One journal entry (I think blogging counts)
9. Express sincere appreciation
10. Personal goal
Each accomplished goal earns you one point and you have one free point per category per week - so you can still treat yourself, just sparingly.
The challenge will start on September 27, 2010 and go for four weeks. The winner(s) of the challenge (those with the most points over the four week period) will be entered into a drawing for a $100 gift card. Once you donate, I will email you twice weekly to update you and motivate you during the challenge.

If you care to donate, but not to do the challenge, I appreciate your support! Please click on the link to the right and make a donation. (Please donate an odd amount so that I will know you do not wish to participate in the challenge, ex: $101.50 instead of $100)

Thank you!
- Amy

Doesn't that sound like an awesome challenge? A chance to motivate yourself? Redefine your lifestyle? Get back on track? Support an awesome cause?
I am totally up for it, and though I know I won't have a perfect score at the end of the four weeks, I am excited to see how well I can do.
Will you do it with me?

Jacob's Dragon, Take 2 and the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ever.

For our project of the week, Jacob decided he needed a dragon with two necks. Like the one on How to Train Your Dragon.
So after some coercion (again), I convinced him that fabric would do the trick and we came up with this loveable guy...who just happened to be much more work than a wood dragon, fyi. (He got his eyes after this pic)He has wood legs, covered with batting and fabric, that were nailed (with a nail gun) to a wood body. His necks and wings and tail all have wire inside so they can bend (very important, just ask Jakey), but the wire has already poked through the head once and come out of the body once. It may not stand up to a rigorous Jacob Playtime...but I've already thought of how I'd do it different next time. Which I hope there won't be...because some fun experiences take too much work.
And here is to show you our current Dragon Nest. Beau's is my favorite, the smallest one, he calls it a Doggie.

Also, if you're like me and you have been searching for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe for forever because (you or) your hubby is a CCCF (chocolate chip cookie fanatic) then this recipe is for you. I have made it three times with the same results each time (a miracle in and of itself). Slightly crisp outsides. Terrifically chewy insides. Here. I just like a little more salt, about 1 tsp, and I usually make them smaller than the "quarter pound" size shown on her blog. And sometimes I add white chocolate chips with semi-sweet. (Or actually Rus does. He made these himself. That's what 9pm and an empty cookie jar will do to a CCCF.) Try them. And let me know when you fall in love.