Happy 15th (?!) Birthday MK!

15 years ago I clearly remember the entire family being sick with the stomach flu. As I was cleaning up someone's barf I had my first contraction. It was 12 days before my due date. Bruce was an hour away at work. He got home and even though I hadn't had another contraction we went over to the hospital to get checked out. I was dilated to 7. Best labor EVER. I got an epidural before I even had a second contraction. They broke my water and voila, out came Miss Mary Katherine Nielson. All 9 pound 9 and 1/2 ounces of her. She was my second biggest baby (Tom was 9 lbs 11 oz) but has become my most petite child. When she was little, MK was known as Mary the mute. She never said a word to anyone outside of the fam. She wouldn't give a talk in primary until she was 5. Being the 7th child and the baby she pretty much gets whatever she wants. When we were at Safeway we mentioned to the checkout guy that tomorrow was her birthday. He guessed she was turning 12. ha! It's been fun having MK stay so young. She would rather play sports than go to a dance and she is saving me a fortune because unlike her older sisters, she couldn't care less about fashion. Since it's her 15th birthday here are 15 things that would describe MK:

1. Basketball, basketball and basketball
2. Fuzzy socks
3. Field hockey
4. Wrapping her dad around her finger
5. Silly you-tube videos
6. Skinny jeans
7. dunkin donuts after the hair cuttery
8. Eating excruciatingly slowly (although she's gotten faster over the past year)
9. Procrastinating homework
10. Playing in the cul-de-sac
11. Babysitting Miss Gwyneth
12. Not getting any sleep at girls camp
13. Bossing Mikey around
14. Photo shoots with Laura
15. Her fave TV shows: Biggest Loser, I Shouldn't be Alive, Idol, Chopped All Stars, modern family.....
OK, I know this would be #16 but how can I forget her undying love for Justin Bieber??

MK is pretty much the best. So glad she's my baby:)

Spring Cleaning and Other Stuff

It's been long overdue, but today I finally got around to nuking the fridge. It wasn't pretty, but now I have room to jam even more stuff into the back to forget about til next time.

Can I just say how much Mikey is the man? He has lost 30 pounds in the past 5 weeks. He's my inspiration. Although, at my age it will probably take me 30 weeks to lose 5 pounds.

My latest project has been working with the YM of the ward to make quilt stands so that the YW and RS have them on hand. It has required lots of power tools and trips to home depot, but it will be nice to have them and not have to borrow them any more. The boys worked for 2 hours in Bro Kendig's garage under the watchful eye of Bro Neville who taught them how to use a table saw, band saw, miter saw and/or power sanders. They needed to make 16 of each of these pieces:Ripping boards with the table saw:
Using the miter saw for a nice angle:
The deacons stayed busy sanding the wood and labeling each piece.Bro Kendig doing his thing with the band saw:
All in all about 50 man hours went into the project. And when I say man I mean stud. The guys were all awesome to donate their time:) Especially with mulch madness looming this weekend! A big thanks also goes out to Bruce who made sure the boys got some chick-fil-a beforehand a to keep them happy. Even though it was cold (45 degrees) and we blew a fuse, everyone went home with all of their fingers so I'd say it was a huge success:)

PS: Here's a sneak peak of my latest quilting project:

Musings on a late winter morning: Full Circle

Back in the day before we barely had 2 cents to rub together Bruce would say that we spent too much over the holidays and that it was time to go into austerity mode. This would last approximately 11 months out of the year. Those days of endless diaper changes (cloth of course!--disposables cost a fortune) seemed to last for quite some time. I remember the first time we ordered pizza was after we'd been married for 15 years. When most of our friends were driving spanking new mini vans we were still diving around in our old dilapidated caprice classic station wagon. Ain't she a beaut? Ours was even this color, except that it was pretty rusty and usually had a missing hub cap. What with 5 little rug rats to contend with and extremely limited funds I figured I had better find some super inexpensive creative outlets. So I learned how to quilt and knit. I was completely self taught because, silly, classes cost money! After some practice, I could crank out a baby sweater for under $5. Over those lean years I made dozens upon dozens of them to give as baby gifts because it was really the only thing we could afford that would make for a presentable gift. I would plan quilts and measure the fabric out to the inch so as to not waste a single scrap. I would hand quilt every square inch of them. But now that we have a little extra money the possibilities are endless. I have turned into a designer fabric snob. I mail my quilt tops to Utah to get them machine quilted. In recent years when I've had a baby shower to go to I've found myself at the mall hunting down the perfect matching outfit and spending way too much on something that will be grown out of in about 6 months. Now that the economy isn't all that great and we have college and weddings to pay for, I've sort of come full circle. I guess I've always known that less is more. So I'm back to knitting sweaters (now the yarn costs about $15) and my latest quilt project is old timey and hand pieced. It's nice to save money and it's all so much more personal this way.

Amazing roses

I got these 8 days ago the Saturday before Valentine's day and they still look like new. As far as I'm concerned the only place to buy roses is the Safeway gas station. And that's about as exciting as my week has been.

Valentine's Day

I can't believe MK's freshman basketball season is over already! It was fun while it lasted. For some reason MK looks more like MK wearing her b-ball jersey:So when she went to relief society with me the other night it came as quite a shock to me to see her modeling this: She reluctantly agreed since all of the Young Women were wearing them in a fashion show for the moms. Since the theme was weddings I was asked to make a cake for the occasion:

For Valentine's Day Bruce gave me these gorgeous roses:

And to complete the perfection of this day devoted to love, these puppies showed up at my door from my little next door neighbor. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. samoas.

While google ing for the pic I stumbled across this article. Which I naturally scoffed at while I scarfed them down:)

Tips for Mindfully Eating Girl Scout Cookies
1) One reason people mindlessly over eat Girl Scout cookies is due to the way they are packaged. The Thin Mints come in a long sheath and the Samoa, for example, are in rows. The natural "pause point" is at the end of the row or the sheath. A "pause point" is the place that you naturally stop and ask yourself if you want more. This way of packaging unconsciously leads people to eat more than they normally would. (Consider how Pop Tarts are packed in a set of two, to subtly imply that you should naturally eat two). Therefore, a helpful hint is to divide these rows of cookies into smaller baggies. That way when you get to the bottom of a bag of two cookies (instead of a row of cookies) you stop and ask yourself, "do I want more?" Creating your own pause points helps you to think mindfully about whether you really want another cookie. We often automatically respond to the subtle cues of packaging rather than our true hunger.

2) If you don't want to waste the cookies but feel uncomfortable with how many you have on hand, there are recipes that call for using several cookies at once. See the recipes below. Bring one of these desserts to a potluck, or to an office meeting. http://www.girlscoutsww.org/cookies/recipes
http://baking.about.com/od/leftovergscookierecipes/Recipes_for_Leftover_Girl_Scout_Cookies.htm

4) Freeze a box. If you are like most parents, coworkers or grandparents, you buy multiple boxes to help your favorite little one. The good news is that they freeze well.

5) Bring a box to work or other events. They will be gone quickly. If you worry about contributing to other people's mindless eating, you might also consider dividing up the cookies and putting one or two on a small plate. Wrap them up with pretty paper. This way you are sharing the cookies without leading others to eat them mindlessly.

6) Get the facts. Check out the nutritonal information on your favorite cookie. http://www.abcsmartcookies.com/cookies_nutrition.asp

7) Don't panic! Remember that Girl Scout Cookies happen once a year. This challenge won't last forever. If you do like them, eat them mindfully, savor and enjoy. Eating too many of them takes out the joy of these little treats.

For more mindful eating tips, see www.eatingmindfully.com By: Dr. Susan Albers, author of the new book, 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food. and Eating Mindfully

Happy 17th Birthday, Mikey! And other cool stuff:)

It's been a crazy weekend. I've had a nasty cold so being on sudafed only makes things a little more surreal. Bruce got a call from Laura's boyfriend on Friday night. MK and I could only hear one end of the conversation, but we could sense the tension. Jordan called to ask for permission to propose. Of course Bruce raked him over the coals for a good 20 minutes. Later I learned that the poor boy was shaking like a leaf during the entire interview. But in the end, he passed and was finally let off the hook. The next night the deed was done. And there couldn't be two happier people. I am referring to myself and Jordan's mom. We think our kids did AOK:) Here are Jordan and Laura in front of the Washington Temple where they will be married on June 25th: Meanwhile there was the super bowl party to get ready for. For Christmas Nathan and Steph got Bruce the NFL Cookbook. It's by far his favorite Christmas present probably due to the fact that there isn't a single recipe in there that won't: A. clog your arteries or B. put you into a diabetic coma. Sunday after church was spent whipping up Warm German Potato Salad (the rue is made out of bacon grease) and Sticky Buns. OMG. Does he not understand that I must lose 30 pounds by June 25th? What is wrong with him???? In the end we had about 6 or 7 of his YM and some dads come over to watch the game. I have to admit that as far as superbowls go, this was a pretty good one. Congrats to the Packers.

As if I need more motivation to get into shape, we were asked to be a Ma and Pa for trek in July. So the weekend after the wedding you'll find us herding 10-12 of Oakton Stake's finest youth as they push a heavily laden handcart over hills and in the heat at the Marriott Ranch. Bruce can't wait. I, on the other hand....

Today is Mikey's 17th birthday. We love him. His birthday coincided with Spirit week. He gets into creatively dressing for each day. Yesterday was "snowed in day". Most kids just wore warm PJs. But not Mikey. He went as the abominable snow man. Today is "dressed to impress day" which would not be complete without his shiny disco shirt. (pictures coming soon) His best outfit of the week is for tomorrow which is "the best of 2010 day". He's dressing as a Chilean miner:
Happy Birthday!!!!

Think Spring

The groundhog didn't see his shadow. They say that means an early spring. I say it means squat. To take my mind off the dismal cloudy weather and the nasty dirty snow and the cold hard fact that we are only half way through winter, I hit up my scrap pile.
I chose yellow because it reminds me of the all too elusive sunshine. And I used up my leftover batiks. No better way to justify ordering more of my favorite kind of fabric. I simply salivate over the stuff.