I humbly stand corrected...

So apparently, I can't count. That should come as NO surprise to many of you; especially those of you in the same club that I'm in... the one that freely admits that there are three kinds of people in this world: those who can count, and those who can't.

In my counting of the amount of grandchildren (hence neices and nephews that I have in the family that I was born into and raised with), I somehow neglected to count LeGrand. My parents have 14 grandchildren. Four Grandsons, and 10 Granddaughters.

I also failed to mention that marrying into Andrew's wonderful family, gives me an additional 5 sisters, two brothers in law, one nephew and two more neices. Someone PLEASE let me know if again, I can't count... This extended family is a remarkable support, and I apologize for failing to mention them in my count!

I am, however, not sure if I can count my own children in when I consider my neices and nephews... however that works, I'm currently too tired to try to figure it out. Too much canning, not enough sleep. I MIGHT be finished soon... I'll let you all know.

Who ARE You???

A few weeks ago Andrew stayed with some good friends in Florida (good friends of his, I'm still getting to know them...). After looking at our blog, Andrew received the following comment: "Tell Linda she needs to have pictures of herself on the blog more for those of us who don't know who she is..." I LAUGHED! Seriously. Not that I don't LIKE having my photo taken, I'm just more often than not on the OTHER side of the camera, and I refuse to hold the camera in front of me to take my own photo. Too many bad photos...

However, I have been thinking a lot lately about that phrase "Who are you???" so, for those who don't know my likes and dislikes or really where I came from (that part's really easy... Heaven. Just like the rest of you...), here's a blog about me. Shocking. And I'll put pictures up later. Really. I will.

I was born in Alaska, and raised in Wasilla, Alaska. (No, I don't know Sarah Palin, and have not formed an opinion of her... yet.) I am the second daughter of David and Kay Pierce, and have a grand total of four sisters and two brothers in my immediate growing up with family. That family has since expanded to include two sisters in law and three brothers in law and thirteen neices and nephews (more emphasis on the neices part than the nephews - all of us girls with children have contributed 1 boy each to the family...) I have an associates degree in Humanities without ever taking an actually labeled Humanities class from Ricks. (Don't ask. I don't know.)

• I love crayons.
• My favorite ethnical foods are Russian, Thai and Mexican - with the occasional Cashew Chicken from the Chinese food menu.
• My favorite colors are deep forest green, deep cranberry red and a deep navy blue.
• I freely admit that I love scrapbooking, but I don't do it very often.
• I am obsessive compulsive at purchasing picture frames (LOVE THEM!) and fabrics that I don't do anything with... yet. I am, however, keeping that obsession under control by staying out of those particular stores...
• My pet peeves include grazing before dinner and people who leave their blinkers on when they're not actually going to be turning.
• I make fudge. And jewelry. And I do Photography.
• I don't wash windows. I can, I just don't.
• I am a recovering credit card addict. As a result, I don't have one. Occasionally, I crave one.
• I LOVE dark chocolate.
• I like reading good books. Sometimes I read a bad book because I don't know that it's going to be a bad book, and I'm intrigued enough to finish the darn thing hoping that it will become a good book, but it never works out that way.
• Strangely, I like the occasional whif of cow manure when you're driving down a country road. My mother always used to say, "Smell that money" because I think her dad used to say it.
• I LOVE Cookbooks. Ask Andrew. He'll tell you that I have way too many. You can NEVER have too many cookbooks...
• I collect miniature oil lamps.
• I've become obsessed with canning and preserving food... I'm currently, even as I type, drying pears and wondering what I'm going to do with the zucchini and cucumbers and prunes that are still sitting in my sun room... tomorrow. I'm processing them all tomorrow when I have two other people coming to help me.

And I could go on for hours. I'll save all of you the details though and won't. That ought to give you all at least a larger glimpse into the sometimes twisted and strange workings of my mind though... My dear friend Kristen (who actually admitted to me the other day that she hated me when she first met me - and I love her all the more for it...) is going to be the photographer on the other side of the camera for me one of these days. As soon as that happens, I'll post pictures of myself. Don't hold your breaths until that day happens though... blue is NOT a flattering skin color.

He's cute and cuddly and CHUBBY!!!

And I think we'll keep him that way - at least for a little bit...

This picture was taken at the beach - I think I may have gotten a bit of the elusive smile.

His laugh is pretty cute too. It's one of those "huh, huh, huh" type laughs that's infections and contagious all at the same time (and yes, I know that's reduntant). It's a laugh. By virtue of the noise one makes when laughing, it's bound to be redundant.

Oh well. I think we'll keep him. Doesn't make much sense to send him back now - Margaret is way too attached to her "nindle buh-ee". She asks him every chance she gets if she can "tuddle" with him. I'm still waiting for him to respond with more than a smile and a giggle.

Where in the US has Andrew been?

Does anyone else remember that computer game "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?" Personally, I can still remember the darn theme song, and it goes through my head everytime I hear someone talking about "Where in the world is ____________ (you fill in the blank here...)". So Andrew and I were talking today about the places he's been. In case anyone else is interested, he has been to the following states -all within the past two weeks, mind you:

1. Idaho
2. Utah
3. Wyoming
4. Nebraska
5. Illinois
6. Indiana
7. Kentucky
8. Tennessee
9. Georga
10. South Carolina
11. North Carolina
12. Florida
13. Alabama
14. Mississippi
15. Louisiana
16. Texas
17. New Mexico
18. Arizona
19. California
20. Nevada
21. Oregon

Places of interest that he's seen - or things of interest that I wish I'd been there to either see or do...

1. Dipping my feet in the Atlantic Ocean would have been pretty cool
2. Going to the Hampton Plaintation in S. Carolina would also have been tops on my list...
3. Visiting Tombstone, Arizona is someplace we're going to have to go back to see...
4. Seeing a real live Alligator in the wild. I think that's amazingly cool.

We have been blessed to know people all over the United States - Andrew has had a place to stay in many of the places he's stopped (Atlanta and Gainsville and Phoenix). But he's been to Paris and Vienna in the past two weeks also, and all without leaving the country! Andrew has seen the tail end of Ike, the sweltering heat of the desert, the suffocating heat of the south, and has put more miles on his truck that I can count.

I guess the good news is that he's picking the best places to have a family vacation before we get there... we'll know all the things that we want to see, and the places we want to go and all the fun things to do before we leave - AND he'll know the road system so we won't get lost! (BIG bonus!!!)

HOWEVER. Since Andrew has been gone Savannah started school and lost two teeth; Margaret had her first all over haircut; and LeGrand grew up, got his first job, shaved and went on his first date. Obviously joking on that one, but he did start laughing and sleeping through the night and gained about 3 lbs and grew 4 inches! Then again, Margaret did too. I put a little onesie type outfit on her this morning that Grandma purchased for her at the beginning of August before Andrew left to go to Canada for the first time. It was loose on Margaret then. It's too small for her now.

Me? I had my 20-14th birthday (today), and gathered about 7 dozen eggs and canned pearple sauce and apple sauce and picked apples and picked pears and fed the hogs and drove to Portland and hosted my first Enrichment Meeting (I'll let you know if it's a success) and tried to keep the house together... I'll let you know on that one too.

All I can say is that we're ALL ready for Andrew to come home. Mom's were NOT meant to be single parents. Still, we're happy and healthy and life is good.

Really? Lederhosen?

The girls and I went to Oktoberfest in Mt. Angel (excuse me: Mountain Angel... I forgot - Savannah doesn't think that it's Mt...) today. It was a wonderful day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and all around us were children and adults wearing lederhosen. I DID NOT feel left out in the least little bit. Something about the leather pants just didn't seem to be all that comfortable.

Margaret went on her first all by herself pony ride - and loved it. Savannah showed off her gymnastic skills by doing front and back flips on the little trampoline ride... LeGrand slept through most of it, and I just enjoyed spending the day with the kids.

The trampoline ride seemed to be the most popular. The line was the longest, and I don't think it was just because there could be only 4 children on at a time, and they let the participants bounce to their little hearts' desires for 5 minutes. The way the ride worked was simple. Each child was harnessed to a pair of antennae that could be adjusted according to the child's height. Then, they were instructed to jump as high as they could on their individual trampoline. Margaret doesn't understand the concept of jumping on a trampoline, so it was hilarious to watch her try to jump...she wasn't going very high very fast. Savannah, on the other hand, was clear up there in the air and having a blast! I'll post pictures as soon as they come back from the developer. (Which means you can expect photos sometime next March...)

All in all, it was a wonderful day. The food was horribly overpriced (which is why we only bought snow cones and ice cream - it was cheapest...), the booths looked great, and the streets were crowded. I got sunburned, and my feet are a bit sore from walking, but I got a little exercise so I'm not complaining. And then, Savannah and I had a great time on the way home counting scarecrows. We found one...

Swimming at Aunt Sheila's

The weather the weekend that we left for the beach was incredibly hot. We couldn't resist getting in the pool...

Savannah and Andrew especially enjoyed it. I'm not the water person that they are, and Margaret didn't like the cold as well as they did either. Looks like it was a blast though!

BEACH PHOTOS!

Yes, I am FINALLY getting beach photos on the blog.

Andrew left town just before we went to the beach, but before he did that, we went to a family gathering in Vancouver. The picnic we went to just happened to be within 10 minutes of the Mighty Columbia River, so we walked down to escape the heat and to have a little "beach" time with Andrew before he left. Even I got my feet wet here!

We had a marvelous time at the beach, despite the fact that it rained constantly almost the entire time we were there. So... these photos were taken on Monday night, the one night that we went down to the beach.

Savannah and Margaret played on the beach for a little bit - getting ready for night involved putting some glow sticks on... and some loving of Aunt Amber for a few minutes before someone said the word...

SMORES!!!!!

Before we got into the chocolate and marshmallow gooeyness, Savannah and I went for a walk where we ran into this man blowing bubbles (not biking backward, thank goodness...) on the beach. Savannah had the guts to ask if she could try - but not before running and trying to catch the bubbles! Something about bubbles... I was impressed with the bubbles, in fact, if I ever get around to it, I'd like to make a bubble blower myself - it's a pretty cool toy!

Finally... this is Margaret's way of keeping the smoke out of her eyes... I suppose you do what you have to do in order to keep your eyes from hurting!

We're all looking forward to the next beach trip... only the next time we go, we're praying for better weather.....

Total Blast from the Past...

I should preface this with the following:

I am a photographer who primarily uses a digital camera. Not because I don't LIKE my SLR camera, but because it's so expensive to develop film and it takes me at least 6 months to get film developed. Then who knows how long after that it will take me to pick the film UP...

That being said, I will now proceed with the real reason(s) for the post.

Margaret turned two and we celebrated with a Mr. Potato Head cake.

Grandpa and Grandma Pierce and Uncle Justin and Aunt Melissa came and we Wii'd (and whee whee, it was fun!)

Margaret Painted her face... Andrew told me to take a picture instead of being upset. I KNEW there was another reason for marrying him!!!

we had a bird live in our bird house... and let me take its picture!!!

And since this crazy computer keeps kicking me off... apparently it doesn't LIKE the blasts from the past and would prefer that we stay more towards the future... I'll get more recent photos up next!

Sleep... glorious sleep!

The long anticipated and much hoped for day has finally arrived. LeGrand is sleeping through the night! He's still not keeping MY preferred hours, but I'm pretty thrilled that he goes to bed around 9 PM, and wakes up at 5:45 or 6 AM. And I am NOT complaining. As long as I go to bed at a decent time, I'm getting good sleep... and so is he! Then, he's taking a good nap from 9 am to about 11 am (if I don't have places to go or people to see.) I haven't figured out his afternoon schedule yet - I haven't been home long enough to figure out what he's doing in the afternoons, but he sleeps well in the car as we're going from place to place!

In other news, I'm making pearple sauce this week. We picked pears from a friend in the ward, and they're just a bit too ripe. So, we're combining them with apples to make a good apple/pear sauce that won't be too gritty, but will be "the perfect blend of apples and pears". (Doesn't that sound too much like a bad advertising scheme?) After pearple sauce, I'm making just plain apple sauce from the neighbor across the streets apple trees. It might be a bit woody with the leaves and stuff, but I think if we get just the apples we'll be just fine.

AND... Andrew should be home sometime next week! I'm not anticipating that he'll be home by Tuesday (my 20-14th birthday), but since I have Enrichment that night anyway, we weren't planning on anything to celebrate. We'll celebrate next year.

Andrew is currently in Florida, heading to North Carolina to pick up a little trailer - then, he's headed back west to New Mexico where he will drop the trailer off. We're praying that he'll pick up another trailer or something to drag WESTWARD behind the truck to California, then another something in California to drag NORTHWARD and home. That's the plan. As long as everyone reading understands that their role is to now pray for this plan to work, we'll all be happy.

And I'm off. I think my brownies that I made for my Enrichment Committee meeting that no one came for are finally cool enough that I can think about frosting them with something that I really don't need to eat, but it's ever so yummy!

Finally!

I have finally finished one room of the house. We've been in the house for almost a year, and I have finally organized the office. There are books on a bookshelf (I traded fresh pears for a bookcase), the clutter is out of the corner, and the desk actually has a top! Is anyone else surprised? I knew it always had a top, but I think I was beginning to forget what it looked like! It's rather nice!

The floor in this room is incredible. I took the area rug out - I think I'll put it up for sale on craigs list or something like that - and the room is cool. I love the looks of the fir floors, and the fact that I can ENJOY being in here! So... it took a few days to get one room finished, but hey - now I can move on to the rest of the house!

The craft room is next... I think. We'll see how long that one takes! I think actually that room will take a bit more in the funding department. Unless... Do you think Ikea works on the barter system???

In case anyone is interested... I will post pictures as soon as Andrew gets back from Florida. He has the digital camera. And no, I most likely will NOT have photos of his travels - maybe the asphalt zipper he's towing... we'll see what photos lie in wait to be published!

What is this strange fascination???

With eggs? Seriously. I wonder if there's something wrong with me that I get so excited to find eggs out with our hens... The real excitement started last week when I watched a hen lay an egg. After watching that - I SHOULD have been turned off of eating eggs. Instead, I wonder if that hen feels pain... And then came the anger at the chicken who was EATING the eggs... (she's going to be chicken pot pie soon...) And now, it's just pure enjoyment that we can go out to the hen house (they're no longer free range chickens... the mess was too much to handle - they dug out the flower beds (one chore I don't have to do), they pooped on the porch, they scratched all of the dirt OUT of the flower beds and on to the driveway... and they chased the cats.) and find eggs. Our cannibalistic hen is in solitary confinement down at someone else's house. She's currently awaiting execution. That's Andrew's job. I don't chop the heads off of chickens - no matter how fun it is to see them run around without their little heads...

Yesterday, I gathered 5 eggs. And today, I gathered another 5 eggs. The day is still young. And I know we have some late layers. The hope is that we'll have 9 eggs per day. What we're going to do with that many, I don't know. There are some good cakes that call for a bazillion eggs... maybe I'll have to do more baking. At any rate - this strange fascination may have something to do with my desire to be more self sufficient - and eggs are just one more step...

I may have to award kudos to the one who can give me the best recipe using the most eggs... since I have 5 dozen that I purchased just last week!!! So... send your best! I, too, will search my own recipe archives for a great recipe. If I find one that's share worthy, I'll post it.

Back in the Saddle... Again.

With Andrew gone for the past few days, I will sadly admit that I have let the house go to the dogs. At least it would go to the dogs if we HAD dogs... Thankfully, I can only handle so much mess before going completely insane; so... today is my "get up and get moving, this house won't clean itself" day. I've already started on the kitchen - it still needs to be mopped. Next up is getting the clean laundry put away and the dirty laundry cleaned. Then we'll move to the office - which hasn't had the desk straightened in a while... and finally we'll get the bedrooms put back together. If there's time, I MIGHT even see about getting that pesky craft room (AKA the third bedroom...) cleaned up so I can see the floor...

And the best news about all this is that I have a grand total of 4.5 hours to get it all done in before I need to get ready to pick Savannah up from school!

That being said... The Race is ON!!!

Ode to a "Baby Brother"

Margaret's favorite question to ask me is this:

"Are you holding your baby brother?"

Since THIS is my "baby" brother, much time has been spent trying to explain to Margaret the difference between MY baby brother, and HER baby brother.

1. more than 20 years.
2. MY baby brother is no longer a baby.
Obviously.
3. I do NOT HOLD my brother. His wife
does.
4. Margaret's baby brother still poops in his
pants. I hope that MY baby brother has gotten over that phase in his life
now.
5. Margaret's baby brother barfs all over me... all the
time. My baby brother has not barfed on me since I was in the sixth
grade.
6. I don't call my "baby" brother a baby. He would
probably sit on me.

And one other... MY baby brother doesn't get candy for the tricks that he can do... such as rolling over; holding his head up; sitting on his own; and not going to the bathroom in his shorts... For that matter, neither does LeGrand... yet.
That being said and done - Ian and LeGrand are quite different - as you can see. Some would say that LeGrand is cuter - he's a baby. He's supposed to be. I do, however, hope that LeGrand develops some of the traits that Ian has - traits that I find to be wonderful and good strong traits - such as the fact that Ian was a great issionary (and so was Justin, for that matter... but Justin is not my "baby" brother by virtue of the fact that he has two siblings underneath him... I'll ode to him later...). Ian, like Andrew, is a good strong priesthood holder. And there are others too numerous to mention. I will, however, put this shout out to Ian's woodworking skills - he (and Christen) made the coolest baby toy ever! It rocks and rolls!!!

And so you see... I hope that Margaret figures out the question soon; and realizes that I am NOT holding my baby brother; I am holding my baby.

HOORAY!!! THE DAY IS FINALLY HERE!!!

While most mothers look to this day with a touch of sadness, there was nothing but excitement and gladness (and a little slowpokedness) here at the Stahr home this morning.

The long awaited and counted down day has finally arrived! Savannah is in the first grade!!! I think, however, that she regretted a touch the fact that she didn't allow herself to enjoy summer as much as she could when she walked into a class twice the size of her little kindergarten class. She still has the same kids in class that were there last year, only this year, they've decided to do split classes, putting some second graders in the class also... and Savannah looked as though she didn't quite know what to do. It will be good for her to stretch a little...

Savannah's first grade teacher is Mrs. Hammer, and Savannah sits in a group with two other girls - her friend Elizabeth from Kindergarten, and a new friend... Savanna. It may be a touch confusing for a while... we'll see if Savannah decides to use her first given name - Kylie - as a way to reduce confusion... (who knows - that may cause a bit MORE confusion...)

At any rate - it will be a lot quieter around the house now; and I may even get the laundry folded a lot faster! (I wouldn't hold any breaths though...)

If we lived with Captain Underpants...

So my good friend, Callie... excuse me - Boobie Chuckledunkin - sent me this e-mail. It made me laugh to the point that I thought it would be wise to share the information with everyone. See where you are, and what YOUR new name would be!

The following is excerpted from a children's book, Captain Underpants And
the Perilous Plot Professor Poopypants, by Dave Pilkey, in which the evil
Professor forces everyone to assume new names... So:
1. Use the third letter of your first name to determine your New first name:

• a = snickle
• b = doombah
• c= goober
• d = cheesey
• e = crusty
• f = greasy
• g = dumbo
• h = farcus
• I = dorky
• j = doofus
• k = funky
• l = boobie
• m = sleezy
• n = sloopy
• o = fluffy
• p = stinky
• q = slimy
• r = dorfus
• s = snooty
• t = tootsie
• u = dipsy
• v = sneezy
• w = liver
• x = skippy
• y = dinky
• z = zippy

2. Use the second letter of your last name to determine the first half of your
new last name:

• a = dippin
• b = feather
• c = batty
• d = burger
• e = chicken
• f = barffy
• g = lizard
• h = waffle
• i = farkle
• j = monkey
• k = flippin
• l = fricken
• m = bubble
• n = rhino
• o = potty
• p = hamster
• q = buckle
• r = gizzard
• s = lickin
• t = snickle
• u = chuckle
• v = pickle
• w = lickin
• x = dingle
• y = gorilla
• z = girdle

3. Use the third letter of your last name to determine the second half of your new last name:

• a = butt
• b = boob
• c = face
• d = nose
• e = hump
• f = breath
• g = pants
• h = shorts
• i = lips
• j = honker
• k = head
• l = tush
• m = chunks
• n = dunkin
• o = brains
• p = biscuits
• q = toes
• r = doodle
• s = fanny
• t = sniffer
• u = sprinkles
• v = frack
• w = squirt
• x = humperdinck
• y = hiney
• z = juice

Using this formula, this puts our new family name as Snicklebutt. So... from the Snicklebutt family to yours - enjoy!!!