The More Things Change...

...the more they stay the same. Or so the saying goes. Just when I think that things are finally changing, something reminds me of how similar each day is. Take getting a good night's sleep. Every night I look forward to a few hours of sleep. Uninterrupted. And yet it hasn't happened in 12 years. Take tonight, for instance. This is pretty typical. It is 12:53 am on Tuesday, Dec. 30th, and I am up with not one, but two little boys. And typing one handed. Andrew is up because he's had a fever all day, and it's been so long since he's had one, I'd forgotten how sensitive his tummy is. He's always been the most vomitrocious of my kids, and at the least hint of anything, out his lunch would come. So he threw up, in his bed, about an hour ago, and now he's sitting in the chair watching Horton Hears a Who, while we wait to see if the ibuprofen is going to stay down.

And Benji, too, is up. He got up two hours ago with a stinky diaper, and now won't go back down, even though he is leaning on my shoulder, exhausted.

The juggling act never ends. When I say 'the more things stay the same', I remember doing this very thing, up in the middle of the night, with Sarah ten years ago. Watching Winnie the Pooh, beginning to end. No way was she going to bed until the final credits ran, even if it was 5:30 in the morning. And one of us had to be up with her, curled up on the floor because she'd kicked us off the couch so she could be more comfortable.

I'm sure this too shall pass. At least that's what my mom tells me. I guess I'll have to believe her, 'cause there ain't no light at the end of this tunnel, honey.

Pictures....Finally.

Kendall, Andrew, and Benji fixing the dishwasher.
I finally figured out how to get photos on the blog. Yea!!! Here are a few from the past few months. Figuring out how to format the dang thing, however, will be another several weeks work, I'm sure.

Benji and pumpkins.

Andrew on the hay ride.

Meri at the pumpkin patch.

Sarah and Peter actually smiling at each other on our hay ride through the pumpkin patch.

Meri and Benji in on Halloween, jumping on the tramp, waiting to go trick or treating.

Andrew's happy 3rd birthday on Dec. 1st.

Benji trying to see the lights at Temple Square.

Benji demolishing the gingerbread house we made last Saturday.

A family photo from the summer vacation at East Canyon.

...And Then There Was The Time When Suddenly No One Could Cook.

I don't like to brag, but I consider Kendall and myself pretty good cooks. I have to admit that there have been times that meals have failed, but at least in my case, it's usually when I use a recipe, instead of blending things intuitively. Case in point--I once set a thanksgiving pumpkin pie with a candied pecan topping on fire because I left it too long under the broiler.

So last Sunday Kendall and I used a yummy sounding recipe titled "Sesame Chicken and Vegetable Stir-Fry". It used something I'd heard of before but never used: Chinese Five Spice, which sounded and smelled intriguing.
It was simple to put together, just frying up chicken and veggies and thickening up a sauce including the Five Spice.

I don't know where we went wrong, but it was the worst meal I've forced down in a long, long, time. Kendall felt the same, I know, because we discussed at length how we will never use that recipe or Chinese Five Spice again. Ever.

So to redeem the evening, we decided to make some cook and serve chocolate pudding. To amp up the nutrition value, however, we decided to add some whey protein powder we have that we usually use to make breakfast smoothies. And we thought, "Hey, the pudding starts out as powder, the whey protein is powder, lets mix them together before we start cooking, so there won't be any lumps."

Please take my advice. DO. NOT. COOK. PROTEIN. POWDER. WITH. YOUR. PUDDING. It did something weird. So weird, in fact, that even the kids wouldn't eat it.

So the bad karma of Pride came back and bit us big time. I think I've lost my taste for chocolate pudding for a while. :-P

I was a little worried, the next day, wondering if this was to be our new life...suddenly sucking at cooking. But it was great. It's hard to screw up alfredo sauce and tortellini and chocolate cake with whip cream frosting covered with M&M's. (It was Andrew's birthday meal. I did find the Tonka Bounce Back Racer, though, just in time. Yea!)