Father's Day 2010

I'm behind as always in posting, but here's a couple of the most embarrassing pictures of Adrian on Father's day. (Sorry Adrian, we forgot to take better pictures later in the day!) We have 9am church so breakfast in bed was bright and early, but I think the chocolate donuts smoothed it all over with Adrian. Adrian you are an amazing dad to our kids and an equally amazing husband. Thanks for being you!! Happy Father's Day!

Wishing I Was Here

I would love to be in Florida right now! The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened up today at Universal Studios! I'm sitting here glued to The Today Show and their coverage of the opening! Wouldn't it be awesome to be there?! I'm sure it's not as spectacular as I would want it to be (I wish it was like a whole amusement park and not just a section of Universal), but it looks like a lot of fun and I need to start planning a trip there, for someday... All the hoopla is also making me excited for movie number 7 to come out in November (#7 part 1 that is, don't get me started on how annoying I think it is that they are breaking book 7 into 2 movies - LAME). Did you know that Caius from the Twilight movies is playing Grindelwald?! And that he and the chick that plays Ginny are engaged?! Fun little bits I discovered from a little trip through the HP blogs out there. Funny how many 7-Degrees-to-Kevin-Bacon-like links there are between HP and Twilight. Fun stuff.

Well I guess I'll get over wishing I was somewhere else with some distractions. We're planning on seeing Toy Story 3 today or tomorrow with the kiddos. Fun. And I still haven't watched this weeks SYTYCD episodes so there's that too. Is anyone else freaking out with complete glee over Maaarrrkkk!, Pasha!, and Neil! being back this season!!! YAY!! And then of course there is my growing Eclipse mania to help with the coping. Only 12 more days!!!

Sting and the BEST concert EVER

Last night Adrian and I went to see Sting at Red Rocks. I can't even explain accurately how amazing the concert was. It was hands down the best concert that I have ever been to (better than the Tori Amos concert for Under the Pink, just Tori and her piano, which I believed was the concert to beat all concerts until last night). It made me love Sting even more than I did before. Sting is AWEsome. His voice was as clear as a bell and because of the acoustics at Red Rocks it sounded amazing. AMAZING! He sounded better live than he does on his albums. How is that even possible? It was incredible to witness.

This Symphonicity Tour is a world tour that Sting is doing with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. It was like the "Best Of Sting" live with a full orchestra. Each song was just different enough with all the beautiful layered sound that it took a minute to figure out what song it was. Fields of Gold - so beautiful and touching. Why Should I Cry For You - gorgeous. And then Moon Over Bourbon Street - SO cool. I was tickled pink when he said "And the next song is about a vampire..." I started clapping and "WOOO"ing! You can't imagine how cool it was to see Lestat singing Moon Over Bourbon Street!! Let me 'splain. As you may know by now I like vampires. I love vampires. This love did not start with Edward or even Dracula, no it all started with Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire in about 1993 and my mental image for Lestat was Sting and always will be Sting (sorry Tom Cruise, but you are no Lestat). So to watch and listen to my Lestat sing Moon Over Bourbon Street live was indescribable. Cool cool beans!

Then there was Red Rocks which was in itself an experience. As we watched the concert we also could see all of Denver down below us and lightning lighting up the distant clouds. Breath taking. Put that with Sting and it was just a spectacular night. And it was a 2 1/2 hours of music with 4 encores. Wow! I'm so glad I got to go and share it with my best friend and fellow Sting fan hubby. We had such a fantastic time. I wish it was like a movie and we could go over and over again. Is there such a thing as a Sting-head? I think we should be Sting-heads and follow Sting's tour around the world... I think we both wish we could after last night!

As you can see I had an extra-special kind of person in front of me who kept standing up at the beginning of each song because she was "feeling it". BTW Red Rocks isn't a good venue for standing because you totally block the person behind you if you stand. But I didn't let "my-favorite-lady-in-the-world" as she became know through-out the night ruin it for me. I was feeling it too and began to appreciate her grooving - it was funny!

This was from Moon Over Bourbon Street.

Mother's Weekend 2010

First off, happy happy Mother's Day to my mom! And to my grandma! I talked to my mom tonight and could hear my family - my dad, sisters and brother, their spouses and kids - all in the background and it made me feel happy that everyone was together celebrating my mom and I was on the phone with her too. Of course I wish I could be there and having dinner and treats with everyone, but it was nice to talk and hear those familiar sounds of a big family gathering in the background.

Today was a lovely day. It really was. I had my breakfast shake in bed (not a big breakfast eater) and all of my children took me aside sometime during the morning to give me special little presents and cards they had made for me (Nina had actually hid her present for me under the ottoman in the family room and when I came downstairs reached under with flourish and said "THIS is for YOU!!"). As I was getting ready my i-Pod, set to shuffle, seemed to play all my favoritest songs, and Adrian got all the kids dressed and ready (aside from hair which I did) and we got to church only about 5 minutes late which is kind of a record for Mother's Day. I'll be the first to admit that sometimes Mother's Day is not my favorite holiday. I love the special treatment from my family and hugs and kisses and "happy Mother's day Mom!" in the morning, but I do not love it when it feels like a guilt-fest at church. And guess what, today was not a guilt-fest or even guilt-twinged at church. It was really nice. I got to go to Relief Society. I got a big cookie and 3 Musketeers bar and all of my children went up front to sing Mother's Day songs (a first since Nina is a Sunbeam now). Then I came home and took a nap. Ahhhh.... Adrian made dinner and a fantastic chocolate mousse for dessert and I got to open presents (America's Test Kitchen Baking Cookbook and See's chocolates). And now tonight I am blogging and watching America The Story of Us and the kids have been happy and generally non-whiny. I can't image a nicer day.

Oh and I didn't even mention how my Mother's Day weekend actually started on Friday when I went to see Babies (which was the cutest movie!!) and out to dinner with Jenny. It was awesome and I love our girls nights! Then on Saturday after a primary activity which I was partially in charge of with the rest of the primary presidency, we had a day where I got to do "whatever I wanted" as Adrian put it. So we went to See's Chocolates in Denver of course and then window shopped at The Cherry Creek Mall which is the coolest mall. I am in LOVE with the store Sur La Table. It is my mecca. I used to think The Container Store was my mecca, but I was wrong. I loved Sur La Table even more. BUT it is an incredibly over-priced mecca so I just soaked in all the wonderful cookeriness without buying anything. The kids got to play in the same play area that Sophie played in almost 10 years ago when she was a little under a year old and we lived in Colorado. This play area is so cool - it looks like a big breakfast spread with softish-sculptury-things of bacon, eggs, sausage, strawberries, and a big bowl of shredded wheat cereal. Super super cute play area and Nina and Ben had a blast! Sophie is now too tall and old for play lands so she had as much fun as Adrian and I had watching Ben and Nina treat the sausage links like balance beams. Then after window shopping and frozen yogurt we went home and the babysitter came and Adrian and I went on a date. We had Chinese and saw Iron Man 2 (which just may be the loudest movie I've ever seen - man I'm getting old) and it was great. All great and fun and lovely.

Big thanks to my family for making me feel special and pampering me all weekend with all my favorite things including snuggles and hugs and kisses. I love you all so much and am so grateful to be a woman and a mom. Happy Mother's Day!

Feeling the Cooking Love

I think freezer meal cooking fills a need I have to package and label and put things in neat little rows. I love ziplocks and foil containers and the feeling I get when my freezer meals are safely tucked away in my freezer. So today was a packaging/cook-fest for me as I made 6 lasagnas for my freezer meal swap. It was a lot of work, but I did it during Nina's nap and Ben's quiet time so I had quality time with my favorite tunes and love of cooking. The lasagnas are all stacked in my freezer ready to be swapped for other yummy meals and I am happy.

A lot of times I struggle with whether or not I should post about my everyday mundane like making freezer meals, but I think it's a good idea to record these moments. What we do with ourselves everyday is a good snap shot of what is important to us. Cooking is important to me. Since moving to CO I have made home-cooking a focus in my life (partially because I have a much better cooking kitchen now and also because I started recipe blogging and love it) and I feel like it's making a difference to our family. We go out to eat a lot less and I'm cooking from scratch tons more than I used to, including bread! I am a bread maker. That feels good to say. And the convenience meals that I do use are freezer meals that I or members of my freezer meal swap have made at home. It all makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Today I took pictures to record a day of freezer meal cooking. I wish I would have taken some with me actually in the picture, but since I was cooking alone and I never take a good camera-held-as-far-away-from-my-face-as-possible-picture (always a double chin!) I guess I'll only have food pics to document the day.


That big pot has about 36 cups of meat sauce in it - my arm still hurts from stirring, but it's one tasty sauce so it's worth it. Oh and just in case you want it this was the recipe I used. Isn't there something satisfying about those foil containers of lasagna lined up and labeled?!

Fear and Loathing in the Dentist's Office

The Dentist by Gerrit Van Honthorst, c. 1622 (This is a real 17th century painting! Though I think I understand why I've never actually seen hanging in a dentist's office.)

Yesterday I had my bi-annual trip to the dentist. Joy. And in this case I mean loathing when I say joy. As I was laying there having my teeth scraped and poked and polished I narrowed down just what it is I hate about it all. First, the x-rays. Those suck big time because I have an overdeveloped gag reflex and cannot help myself from choking horribly on the plasticy-whatever-things you have to bite down on during the x-rays. My eyes were watering and I was trying my hardest to breath through my nose and go to my happy place (usually Forks or the Swiss Alps), but as hard as I tried I still gagged and sputtered and choked and the poor x-ray tech had to keep repositioning the bite-thingies. By the end of the x-rays I started to feel like I was a member of a terrorist cell and the x-ray technician was a scrubs wearing Jack Bauer. Seriously, do CIA operatives use dental x-rays in interrogations? I think it might work. That all said, I'm glad I got it done so that I don't have to do it for another 5 years. Next on the list is the broken conversations that the hygienists and dentists try to have with you. They are working on your teeth making it clearly unable for you to talk, but they still ask you questions. Questions that require more than a nod or shake of the head, like for instance "where did you go to college and what did you study?" I know the hygienist was just trying to put me at ease, but wow how to you answer that with your mouth wide open without drooling or biting her finger. I nodded and grunted "BYU" and "Art History" and felt very silly. You can't tell someone about your love of art history when they are scraping away or polishing with that whirly toothbrush. Then there is the actual scraping part. Ooh it gives me the eeby-jeebies just thinking about it, but the feel and sound of metal scraping teeth is nasty. During the nastiest bits of the metal-scrapping-teeth part we had a very one-sided conversation about the mining tragedy in WV. Sad and horrible - I thinks that's what I open-mouthed grunted. Then there's the music. Always Lite FM. I'm afraid I will always associate poor Phil Collins and now Taylor Swift with dental work. The visit ended with a new silver toothbrush and an appointment to do it all again (minus the Jack Bauer interrogation) in 6 months.

I don't mean to be a hater. I am really very grateful for dentists and hygienists and I am thankful that because of them I don't have gum disease or halitosis. And the dental practice that we go to is wonderful. The whole office is full of very kind and friendly people and they are great with my kids. I like the feeling after my teeth are cleaned and how shiny and smooth they are. That all is great. It's just that there are very uncomfortable parts to dental visits and the truth is I wish teeth would stay nice without dentists, which is a very silly wish I know.

On a related note we are currently pricing out different orthodontist practices for Sophie and she will soon get braces. Crazy! I am seriously amazed by how much orthodontics has changed since I had braces. The orthodontist that we had a consultation with yesterday uses these cool springy devices which make it so you don't have to wear a head-gear! Awesome. And Sophie is excited to get braces and I've decided not to burst her excitement bubble with any of my horrible orthodontist stories (honestly those stories are wherein I developed and honed my current loathing of dentistry).

Happy Birthday Adrian!!

We had a lot of fun celebrating Adrian's birthday. There was 3D movie watching (How to Train Your Dragon), amazing onion rings eating at Cheeburger Cheeburger, presents, cake and candles, and of course some Wii playing. It was a super fun day and I'm so glad because my awesome husband deserved it! Here's a list of random things I love about my man:

• Adrian is my rock. He is incredibly even keeled and I love that I can always rely on him to be calm and handle everything with sanity and deep thinking (let's just say I'm pretty much the opposite so I'm very fortunate to have him).
• Adrian really does love Scifi in a way that I will never understand, but I find it endearing. I love that he is that cliched computer geek with a vast knowledge of classic and contemporary Scifi to prove it. We had his birthday cake on Star Wars paper plates and he of course held his Darth Vadar plate over his face and told each of the kids "Sophie/Ben/Nina I am your father" in his best James Earl Jones impression.
  
• Adrian loves Nyquil. He only takes it when he is sick, but I really think he would be a boozer if he wasn't a firm believer in the Word of Wisdom. Just saying. :) I think it's so funny and love to make fun of him about it!
• From my last post you may have noticed that Adrian sets up all our dates. I love that he calls the babysitter and plans things out. Isn't that awesome?!
• Adrian is in charge of bedtime with the kids. I love this and it is his special daddy time with each of them. I read books and give hugs and kisses, but Adrian tucks the kiddos in and brushes teeth and all that. I love that he is a hands on daddy and always has been. When we had little babies he would change diapers in the middle of the night and bring babies to me for feedings. Thanks for being a wonderful dad Adrian!
• Adrian can put anything together. Flat packed furniture? No problem. A new toy, bike, bunk beds, big ol' swing set, anything... It's amazing. In fact, when we had only been dating like a week or something he came over to my house and helped my sister and her husband put together all their kids' Christmas stuff (they got little ATVs and other various assembly-required things). My brother-in-law took me aside and said "Jenni, this guy is a keeper". I agreed.:)
  
• I love Adrian's dry sense of humor. He is funny. And because he is so quiet I love his jokes even more because they are pretty much just for me (and the kids) and that makes me feel special. We also both love British humor especially because it's dry - Vicar of Dibley, Father Ted (which is actually Irish), Absolutely Fabulous, Keeping Up Appearances, Dr. Who, and Red Dwarf are some of our favorites.
• Most of all I love my man because he is truly good. He does the right thing and has a wonderful testimony. He loves Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and our family. He truly has the right priorities and I'm so glad that my children are growing up with him as their example of a righteous man and husband. Adrian inspires me to be a better person.

Happy happy birthday Adrian!! I love you and think the world of you! You are such an awesome guy!!