Thank you-frustration-funny

THANK YOU!: I have mentioned before that I love my friends, but here is another post, about my birthday. Ben was out of town, which was okay, but I thought it would have been nice to have someone around. One of my friends, when she saw me casually said oh ya, it's your birthday, happy birthday. But Chelsea is not casual, mellow or quiet, so I should have known. She and Marilou made me a surprise birthday dinner and cake. Thanks you guys, love you!

Do everyone's kids love being naked?

FUNNY FRUSTRATION: I just went to the dentist. I will be going for three more long visits. My dentist cracks me up. He's not even nice, but it's dang funny. He's passionate about dentistry. After my x-rays he looked at them and said, "Wow, you have terrible teeth." Then today after he filled in my cavity (it was an old one that needed to be redone) he said, "Geez, that was a huge cavity." and he just keeps saying that I have crappy teeth over and over. I actually apologized for having bad teeth and then laughed inside my head because I realized I'm making his mortgage payment. Maybe he should thank me!

Just as a disclaimer: I brush my teeth twice a day and I am proud to say I am now am a faithful flosser.

FUNNY: A couple months ago I was playing the organ in church. Ben wasn't there so I quickly asked someone to watch Macey and Cody, except Macey wouldn't have it. Taking Macey with me, I thought we would fix it when sacrament started. We somehow had a miscommunication and I ended up keeping her, and short of a full scale freak out, she sat right by me while I played. Well, midway through the first hymn she suddenly fell flat on her face. I had to stop mid-chord and pick her up, then I picked up right where we left off. Miraculously, she didn't cry.

Ben's crazy schedule

Ben went to a conference in St. Louis last week, then got home at midnight Sunday and started an equine surgery rotation early Monday. It has been a pretty intense rotation with super early mornings and late nights. Then yesterday he went to Seattle for the day with the equine surgery clinician to help there. They left at 4 a.m. and got back at 11 p.m. So in the last week, he has seen Cody and Macey twice. I think it's hardest on Cody, he misses him! Tonight though, Ben is bathing the children while I blog and they are loving all the attention from him. I am loving it too:)
Ben is applying for internships right now, so we could know where we're going next year by Dec. 1! We'll just have to see.

Meanwhile at the homefront we got to do preschool at our house last week! Here are a few of the kids with their pumpkin art.

We also had our service auction at church. It was so much fun to see all the talent we have in our ward. First, to get points, everyone had a paper with one random fact about each girl. They had to talk to everyone to match the right ones up to the right person.

Then, we auctioned everything off.

If you had a service that required a meeting time and place, you went to the 'redemption table' to set up the time.

And, there was the cake truffles and cider too. yum.

10.10.10=(sigh)30

That time of year has come and I'm not ready for it. Instead I am deciding to celebrate the last year of my youth. Goodbye youth. I'll miss you.
Update: Cody and Macey are taking swimming lessons. Cody is so cute and he loves it. He has no fear. Macey likes the water, but she doesn't love me holding her in the deep part of the pool and she doesn't love doing what everyone else is doing, SO she doesn't love swimming lessons. But if I can distract her enough we can actually last through class. It's a juggling act because Cody's lessons get done before Macey's so I either have someone sit with him or he gets in with Macey and I.
Ben is in St. Louis for an equine conference. He left at 3 in the morning to get to the airport on time and while they were flying his plane was hit by lightning! Luckily, everything was fine. He is enjoying the conference and we look forward to his return.

Fall Apples-everything you need to know

For a little preschool activity, we went to the WSU apple orchard. We learned all kinds of things about apples: when the seeds are brown they are ripe, always leave the stem on so it stays good longer, prune trees every year taking out branches that are not pointing up. Did you know red delicious are the most popular apple in the US, but it is the least versatile. They are only good for eating, but not baking, canning or anything else. They do, however, have the most antioxidants in their skin. China produces the most apples. Washington produces the most in the US.

We also took a tractor hay ride and got to pick out pumpkins. Cody could hardly contain himself waiting to carve his pumpkin.
And here's an amazing recipe for fresh apple pie, a little tangy, and perfectly sweet. I made some with the apples we got at the orchard. Incidentally, Ben wouldn't eat any because it's 'not healthy.' I can just smell the pumpkin bread. We may just have to use real pumpkins with the national shortage. I LOVE fall food!

Fresh Apple Pie
3 1/2 c. fresh apples in 1/4" slices
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/8 t. nutmeg
3 T. cornstarch or 6 T. flour
1/2 c. cold water
1/2 c apple juice
2 T. bottled lemon juice
doug for one double crust pie
Peel, core and slice apples into medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high 5 minutes. Stir and microwave until apples are tender. Combine dry ingredients in medium saucepan. Add water, apple juice and lemon juice and cook on medium heat until thick and bubbly. Fold in drained apples slices. Turn into unbaked pie crust. Cover with top crust and seal edges well. Prick and decorate as desired. Brush lightly with milk, avoiding crimped edges. Sprinkle lightly with sugar. Bake at 400 for 20 min, reduce heat to 350 and bake 30-40 min. until crust is golden brown.

Three brave friends and I ran the Emmie Law Memorial Half Marathon.

It felt like this: slight incline running up, then steep hill, get to the top-another steep hill, get to the top-another steep hill, etc. slight decline, another hill, get to the top-steep hill. repeat.
Needless to say, this was not my best time, but well worth the effort. Speaking of effort, I may have not trained as often as I wanted to, due to Ben being gone for over half of my training, but walking group counts dang it!

Thanks are in order to Jaimie for watching my kids and Chelsea for dragging my butt up those steep hills to train.

You girls rock!

Side note: I had these awesome gel gummies and some of them had caffeine. I LOVED them and would recommend them to everyone.

Without thinking I gave one to Cody and Macey as a treat-50/50 chance they got a caffeine one, they all looked the same. Later, and an hour after I put Macey down for a nap, she was singing at the top of her lungs and shaking her crib. It dawned on me that I had given my child caffeine, and that was not wise.

ABCD Little Star

This is -Cody marchin through- and little Mace's rendition of the ABC's...or Twinkle Twinkle...or both.
Cody and Macey sure love singing.
Cody was singing at the top of his lungs on the way home from Utah on the plane. Most of his songs start or end with "For a long time." I don't know why. I love it. Cute, but em-bar-rassing when people are trying to rest.
We took a ride on the city bus for fun the other day and Macey belted out Twinkle Twinkle for everyone's amusement. She just hums or mumbles the unfamiliar parts. Also cute. Also embarrassing (that it's so loud).