What I like about our House...

A newly remodeled Kitchen! Of course, it's not finished yet - we want to eventually put in a new countertop and paint the kitchen, and there are the unfinished pieces that you can see... but doesn't the floor look WONDERFUL???!!! (Andrew did that... :) He's so handy with a hammer...)If you look closely, you'll see that the stove isn't attached to the wall... yet, but it will be... eventually.

a little behind... a Margaret Story.

And no, I'm not talking about an actual "Be-Hind..." Although - and this is a total sidebar here: yesterday as I'm in the kitchen doing the dishes and Savannah and Margaret are outside, I hear a tap-tap-tapping on the window, and Savannah summons me to come see what Margaret is doing. What Margaret was doing, ended her outside time. Little girls (and this goes for big girls too...) DO NOT pull their britches down and drop their skirts to the ground and squat to water the flowers! It's just not acceptable. All the way in the house, Margaret was wailing, "I won't pee outshide adain! I pwomishe!" Once in the house, the tune changed a little to "wemember when you let me pee outshide lasht shunday yeshterday?..." Um... No. Not a memory that I have.

Needless to say... I hope that she has learned that little girls use the toilet. I'm not ready to explain about little boys.

I'm just a little behind on my posting. Pictures will follow. As soon as I download them. In five minutes.

Margaret... Asleep.

I don't know HOW shes remotely comfortable, or WHAT she's doing, but when I was a teenager, I would do my hair at night and then try to sleep like this so that I could get the most sleep possible and not have to worry about my hair in the morning. It NEVER worked, but it was a phase I went through anyway... I think Margaret just fell asleep, and there wasn't room on her pillow for her head...

Family Photo Shoot

My mom is putting together a Family Photo Thing for my Grandma Jensen, and asked for a picture of us. Since we didn't have one, we had to create one. Here is the result, and one of the kids too...
Margaret is 3 (she'll tell you she's 7); Savannah is 7 (she won't tell you she's three); and LeGrand is 10 months old. Andrew and I are much older than that...

Kitchen Remodel

So we took all the floor out of the kitchen - down to the subfloor (and when I say "WE", I mean "Andrew". I certainly didn't do anything...I'm not as "handy with a hammer" as Andrew is.) and had a bricklayer come to put our new hearth in. The wood cook stove will sit on top of it sometime later this week...There is no longer a screaming hunk of metal that likes to call itself a dishwasher, the island is now in the basement for laundry and those supplies, and we'll be putting the rest of the floor in later this week. (Again... "we" means "Andrew"...) Looking forward to posting a final photo!!!

The View the other day...

This rainbow was so large that I couldn't get it all in one shot... no matter how I tried. So... sorry, but you'll have to imagine the other 3/4 of this rainbow!

Margaret's Quote for Today

MOM! My Mouth is Leaking! I need a napkin!!! Hurry! It's leaking out the top!!!

Remodeling the House

Our time lately has been taken up with destruction... and rebuilding. Over spring break, Andrew and I had a few days by ourselves (well... we had LeGrand with us, but he's not the talker that the girls are... it was really quiet around here...), and during that time, we decided to take the Pergo out of the main living area. When I say "WE", I really mean "ANDREW" - I was just here for moral support.

In taking the floor out of one room, we discovered that there had been a wall there. SO... We put the wall back in. The plan with this wall is to build a bookshelf with a cupboard in. We'll do the same thing on the other side of the wall - making one room a study, and the other the Music room. We're excited to be able to really use the room, and to have a spot for visitors to sleep where they can close the door...

Currently, I'm listening to the sound of the Brick Mason as he builds a wall and Hearth in the Kitchen for our Wood Cook Stove. As soon as he's finished, Andrew will put the floor back in, and we'll start Barbecuing. (What?! Did you REALLY think that we were going to cook with wood in the middle of the summer in the HOUSE????) If we want to bake something, we'll use the wood cook stove that's going in the canning kitchen. At least that one's portable... and outside!

So... I'll post some pictures of the inside of the house - when I've had a chance to get all the dust off the floor and the floor looking somewhat normal again.

I like Trucks... and cars and things with engines...

A couple of weeks ago, during a brief break in the rain, Andrew and I took the children (Margaret and "LeDwand" (Margaret speak for LeGrand)) outside while we torched some Ivy that was becoming bothersome. Savannah was at school... Instantly, LeGrand gravitated towards the trucks and cars. Incidentally, these are the same toys that Andrew played with when HE was a little boy. I have come to think that it's built into your Genes. Either you are a girl and LOVE dolls and makeup and dress up stuff, or you're a boy and LOVE cars and trucks and things with engines that you can take apart. The Girls were NEVER this interested in the toys like this at this age.

There's NO WAY that's Comfortable

I'm no expert, but I'm fairly certain that High Chairs weren't meant to be sat in this way...

Around Parts of the Midwest in less than 6 days.

And yes, we're tired. Andrew's friend Chris got married, and we went to the wedding. Before hand, we decided to make a quick trip to Utah so that we could go to the Salt Lake Temple.

After much deliberation, comfort won out over fuel mileage, and we decided to pack the children and what amounts to half of their worldly belongings in the truck, and 1 in the AM on Wednesday morning, we drove out of our driveway. At 6 in the PM, we arrived at our destination: Justin and Melissa's house in Tooele. And at 6:05 in the PM, they left for their meetings. Leaving us with their wonderful bounty of Chicken Patties for Chicken Sandwiches. Yum. Then, it was letting Savannah and Margaret play with Legos until "Uncle Bubba" came home, because as Savannah said, "I can't have come all this way to NOT see Uncle Bubba and Aunt Melissa." LeGrand was more interested in what Bruce was doing. Some rousing games of Hide and Seek with Bruce (the monstrous German Shephard) later, and Uncle Bubba got the sleeping beds out for the girls... needless to say, it was late when we went to bed.

Thursday, Justin and Melissa went to work and we took the girls and LeGrand to Salt Lake to see the Church History Museum. We were ALL impressed by the Tabernacle (or Tabelnacker, however you prefer to say it...) display. The girls especially liked the "I am a Child of God" display. Then, it was to lunch and dropping the children off at yet another relative's house where Savannah learned to play Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater on their piano, and Margaret proceeded to show them how great an appetite she had. LeGrand just had to have his clothes washed... again. Andrew and I went to the Temple where we had a MARVELOUS time. The SL Temple is absolutely gorgeous, and it was a unique experience for us. One that we won't soon forget. (And in case anyone wonders, the sessions start on the hour. If you're there at 3:10, you wait until 4...) Then, after we were already late getting back to dinner with Justin, Melissa, Ian and Christen, we FINALLY got back to the dwelling in Tooele sometime around 8:30 PM. (Dinner was scheduled for 6:30... I'm still sorry, guys...) Melissa made some DIVINE Taco Soup (which I promptly burnt my tongue on, ruining the flavor of ANY food for the remainder of the trip), and we enjoyed a visit. Andrew wants to play the game you have where people get the shock of their lives, Justin... Savannah doesn't.

Thursday night found us in Logan, UT for the night, and then up on Friday morning to go shooting with Andrew's Uncle, "Brute". (Margaret speak for Bruce). That all fun and games done, we had lunch at Costa Vida (if you've ever been to Cafe Rio, you've been to Costa Vida... but that's another story), then left to go to the wedding reception in Idaho Falls. After the reception, we headed North to Rigby, Id, where we stayed with cousins of a cousin. And no, that wasn't at all awkward. (No sarcasm at all, by the way.) Come to find out, we had a lot in common with the cousin's cousin, and thoroughly enjoyed their hospitality. Enjoyed it so much so that we were up talking with Bob and Tasha until 2 in the AM!

Up on Saturday to attend the wedding in Idaho Falls (yes, it's the new trend to have the reception and then the wedding...), then the luncheon, and then down to Whitney to visit with some dear friends, our former neighbors. It was a good visit.

Saturday night we were back in Logan with Ethan and Shannon, then up Sunday to get ready for church and Easter service... after church, the drive home. We pulled into the driveway at 6 AM Monday morning, put everyone into their own beds, and proceeded to sleep for most of the rest of the day.

Today, I'm doing laundry and finally getting the house back together. I need a vacation from the vacation. I'll post pictures from another day later. I didn't take the camera on this trip.

Just a reminder...

There's still a chance to Play it Forward... You never know what you might win...

A few things to catch up on...

Like the fact that LeGrand has four teeth now....

And we are now Chicken Ranchers... the cows will return soon to take their place in the freezer... and I am totally thrilled about that - looking forward to some home-grown beef!

And I'm ready for Spring Break to be over.

Cooking with a Wood Stove...

Isn't really as difficult as it seems. It's like doing Dutch Oven all the time. 99% of the time we cook with Cast Iron (saves on dish soap), and the other 1% of the time I'm trying to figure out how to keep the food from sticking to the bottom of the non-cast pan. It's a delicate balance of lots of shortening and getting the pan really hot. I haven't remembered which yet.

So when my parents came to visit, we did something really fun. We went to some Antique stores in Aurora, OR - the Antique Capital of Oregon (for those of you who really care...). It was a BLAST! In fact, it was so much fun, that Andrew and I went back... and then we went back again. And what do we have to show for our return visits???

A wire chicken. It comes in "eggstremely" handy as the egg basket. (Sorry. The pun just slipped out like a bad yolk...)

A popcorn popper. It's really cool. You put the oil in, put some popcorn in, sit it on top of the wood stove, and wait for the kernels to start poppin'! Then, you turn the fun little handle on the top until the top pops off, and you've got yourselves a nice, healthy snack. At least it's healthy until you add the butter and the caramel and the other toppings. We never do this... RIIIIIIGHT.

And then... the piece that we're MOST excited for... (and I would be lying if I didn't admit that it has a few people wondering if we've lost our collective minds...)

THIS:

I will be the first person to say that there is going to be a learning curve when it comes to baking in the oven. That's not something that I've ever done, and I'm certain that the bread isn't going to come out quite the way I want it to the first time or two. However, I am thoroughly looking forward to "slaving over a hot stove" literally.

Yes, we know this is a step back for most people. Frankly, we don't care. We are planning on putting this new stove in the kitchen where the old stove (the electric one that gathers dust and is only used on Sundays - and then only maybe...) currently sits. We're also moving the refrigerator (no, we're not getting rid of it) into the pantry so that we can have a nice work area next to the stove. The next step is to take all the tile out of the kitchen so that we can actually use the wood floors that are underneath it... (We've already taken the pergo out of the dining room to some VERY pleasant surprises...), and then... the hearth. And after that, we'll install the stove, and then... as I've heard, We're prepared for some of the best meals we've ever tasted.

It's going to be fun. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

P.S. Look closely, and you'll see the chicken and the popper on top of the stove...

Paying it Forward with Callie...

The Rules:
1. Be one of the first THREE to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me- something crafty or yummy, who knows?!
2. Winners must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift-anything!- for the first Three bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!
3. The gift that you send your THREE friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And remember, It's the Spirit and the Thought that Counts!
4. When you receive your gift feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love!

If you are not one of the Top Three Commentators on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! So remember...it is good... :) Pass it Forward! And I might feel generous and send something to the first FOUR people so don't quit commenting at three :)

Quickly... I'm supposed to be working...

Not anywhere but here at home, but I have LOADS of laundry waiting for me to fold them (and they've been waiting for a LONG time...), bread that needs to be made, and contacts that need to be contacted.

It's a busy day.

So... in short, here they are, "just the facts, Ma'am".

Savannah: still in school, still loving it, but realizing that there are benefits to staying home on some days. Learning to so more chores at home, and finding out that cleaning the toilet isn't as fun as she thought it was to begin with.

Margaret, aka "Sweetie Pie": developing quite the vocabulary, but not quite able to say the "s" sound. Her friend Sam has an unfortunate name when the S is replaced with a D sound... Margaret now calls him "The friend with the name that We don't Say..." She's also learning the value of work, and cried last night when I told her that her chores were finished. We'll see how long that lasts. Today, she informed me that she needed to eat a banana because she's a monkey.

LeGrand: Cutting his FOURTH tooth, crawling all over the place, saying "da-da-da-da-da..." and laughing when Andrew says, "don't you mean ma-ma-ma-ma...?" He's also very much a boy and into almost everything. He keeps me on my toes. And out of my bed at night.

Andrew and Linda: working on advertising the photography business. People are still getting married, and the money that they're NOT spending on remodeling their homes, they are throwing some of it towards wedding pictures. So... visit www.lindastahrphotography.com to see what we've been up to! And Linda is looking very much to attending WICKED tonight!!!

And I think that's the catch up for now. I'll post more later when I have more time to say what I want to say.

Oh yeah... and did I mention that we're getting ready to install a wood cookstove in our kitchen? I am SOOOOOOO excited! And Andrew took the Pergo (Yuck) off of the dining room floor to find some beautiful, although a bit rough around the edges Fir floors! Can't wait to see what it ALL looks like!

Pictures will be forthcoming. LJ is demanding my attention now.

Check it out!

So I entered a writing contest the other day..., and while I didn't win, I did take an honorable mention! If you get the chance and want to read my little honorable entry, I'd love to share!

It's at my OTHER blog... the one I use to share creative thoughts and try to improve my creative writing skills... And, since it's not a blog that's been shared too much, I'd love it if you'd all read at least a little.

My creative outlet (other than the other things I do, that is,) can be found at Just a Thought. The article that won is: It Went REALLY Fast... For some reason, clicking on the article link is the best way to get to the article. You can access the blog by clicking on our "Blog, blog, blog, blog, blog link to "Just a Thought".

I get to display THIS



in the article that was honorable just for being honorable!

Enjoy!

We are NOT Amused

You, however, may well be. So, since I'm currently not finding humor in the loss of my new foundation and the most expensive of my make-up brushes, someone else is going to have to laugh for me.

Two days ago, I found Margaret playing in the bathroom. First clue: It's really quiet. Second clue: the water goes on and the response is, "I'm butting my teet!" Water off, and then, silence. Since Andrew and I were in the middle of a conversation with someone else, I didn't think anything of the fact that Savannah had gone up to bed and Margaret was still in the bathroom... Until 20 minutes later. That's when I realized that it was dead quiet in the bathroom and the light was still on. Going in to turn the light off, I find Margaret playing in the water with my most expensive makeup brush. Granted, I've had the brush for at least 10 years, (and used it twice...) but I recently re-discovered it's softness and have used it twice in the last week. So... after talking to Margaret about not playing with Mommy's makeup, (mind you, this is the third time in a week... the first time was with the "chapstick" that turned out to be powder foundation; the second was with something else out of my makeup box...) she went to bed and I tried to wash the lotion out of my brush

Today, I hear the water go on and tell Margaret to come out of the bathroom. Again, the teeth excuse. Then the water doesn't go off, and the Margaret noise is non-existent. So... I say again, "Please turn the water off..." and hear; "I am wating the tink!" This is never a good idea to let a three year old wash your sink. When I went to clean up the "soap" I discovered that she had emptied an entire bottle of my brand new matches my skin tone really well I'll be keeping the Mary Kay Lady in business foundation. And then, used the brush that I had rescued to "paint" the sink and the towel and the makeup box and probably herself with watered down foundation. I wasn't anticipating having to purchase foundation quite so soon.

Why can't she just stick to playing with my shoes?????????

Today, she's NOT a Sweetie Pie.

The latest and greatest...

Since I'm sitting in the office freezing my socks off, and I have a few minutes while LJ sleeps... thought I'd put a little update in. For the record, the only reason I'm freezing my socks off is because it's wicked cold outside and has been snowing all morning. That and the fact that the windows in this room are 80 years old and let in all of the cold! (and it's around the corner from the wood stove, and apparently, heat doesn't travel as well around corners.)

That being said, all is well in Stahrville. Andrew is working 60 hour weeks at the temple, I am working 40 hour weeks at the same location. The only days we actually see each other for more than 45 minutes is Monday (when I am apparently a distraction at work - and yes, I'm flattered... Still.) since we both work at the same time and in the same location - I mean, building... and Sunday when we get to spend ALL day with each other! Saturdays we do get a little more time together, but we're both so tired from everything that's happened during the week that our date night Saturday went something like this:
A nice, romantic dance in the living room; Ordered in Chinese Food that Andrew went to go pick up; and then we snuggled on the couch to watch "Night at the Museum" and barely made it through the credits. I think I remember the first night's worth of work. We woke up when LJ started crying and needed some more food to fill his hollow leg.

We are, however, NOT complaining. I'd rather have Andrew working and being tired than not working at all. And it's good work that has possibilities. He's learning a lot about commercial work and even though it's something he's never really done before, he's a good hard worker, and that part of it shows.

As for the kiddos... LJ has now TWO teeth and is extremely mobile. He's working on the letting go part of standing up. I'm still not ready for this. He loves food of all sorts, and is mastering the art of eating green beans all by himself. So far, he's doing fairly well. He loves bread (thanks to Patience for the whole wheat bread recipe that really is quite tasty...) and just about everything else he can fit into his mouth.

Margaret is still going by her alter-ego "Sweetie Pie" and gets rather irate if you try to call her anything else. She tolerates "Margaret", but if you ask her what her name is she'll insist that it's "Wheatie Pie". And she's mourning the loss of her hair from her Christmas Hair cut. Even though I feel like I totally butchered that cut, it's the one that gets the most cute comments... She's now three, and still very into the dolls and Barbie phase. Her name for me is "Honey."

Savannah is doing marvelously at school. She is very into making and decorating cards for her friends and picking on Margaret. She is, however, getting better at NOT picking on Margaret and instead is moving towards teaching Margaret how do make and decorate things also. She loves to help me in the kitchen, and is a handy person to have around when my hands are covered in flour. I think this year will be spent in teaching Savannah some of the basics of easy cooking... She's lost at least 6 teeth and is still waiting for most of them to come back. She is getting better at Reading, although she's still not as enthusiastic about it as I am (or was... still trying to figure that one out...) but whatever enthusiasm Savannah lacks for reading, she more than makes up for in her love of Math. (again... still trying to figure that one out - but she has inspired me to do a little better at the mental math. We add numbers on license plates to see who can get the answer the fastest.)

And that's the latest... I'll get some pictures posted one of these times - they're sitting on the camera right behind the computer - but I'm low on energy. Ask me about pictures next month...

Not ready for this yet...

So I am for sure not going to leave the kids with Andrew all day again. Don't get me wrong - he's a WONDERFUL father, and does a great job with the kids... HOWEVER - he teaches them things that I don't want them to do! Good things, but things I'm just not ready for yet.

Prime example: Two weeks ago, I came home from work to find that Andrew had taken LeGrand's pajamas off and he had discovered traction on our wood floor. He was crawling. And now, it makes no difference what he's wearing, he's figured out how to get around without worrying about the traction.

Today - I came home to find that Andrew had taught LeGrand a NEW trick. He now goes UP the stairs. We stay behind him so that he doesn't fall, but again... something I was NOT ready for him to learn. After all - the little guy is still in his sixth month of age! The girls weren't crawling until seven months; I'm pretty certain that it was closer to ten months when they decided to learn the stairs.

Add to the adventure of the stairs and crawling, I caught LeGrand climbing onto a box yesterday. May I say again... NOT READY FOR THIS!!!!!!!!!! I thought for sure I'd have a few more months to not worry about what he's getting into. I should really stop thinking.

And that other tooth? It's broken through. I wasn't ready for teeth yet either. He's such a little smarty pants. Next week I'm expecting him to be running. Possibly teaching a class at the local university. At the rate he's going, I wouldn't be surprised if he was standing on his own. He is pulling himself up onto things and standing there very well - if only he'd slow down a little bit. I'd be perfectly O.K. with that, I must admit.

As for the other children - Margaret is still a "wheatie pie", but now she's also a little Einstein. Savannah is getting marvelous grades in school and still loves it - although she has asked me when spring break is. I'm not sure if she's trying to get out of school, or if she thinks that we'll go somewhere during spring break.

In other - and more positive news - Andrew will be working at the Portland Oregon Temple during the closure. And so will I. We're trying to figure out what we'll do with the young ones during the possible overlap (and if there's not an overlap, we're trying to figure out when we're going to see each other over the three weeks of shutdown). Me, I'm just glad that he has work. Thank you for your continued prayers for and in our behalf.

Now to answer Patience's questions: During the ice storm, we had wind and the weight of the ice break multiple branches off of our gorgeous trees that line the driveway. They littered the driveway to the point that we couldn't use the majority of the driveway. They are now sitting on the burn pile waiting for us to be able to burn them. That's first. Second, I'm wishing that life could slow down a little too.

I do want to mention quickly how pleased I am that our children are so willing to help... Andrew and I took the family to the church tonight for Family Home Entertainment. We cleaned the building (mostly the bathrooms - which were stinky... and the chapel and the dirty drinking fountains), and the girls were such good helpers! Margaret and Savannah both just tagged along with us as we cleaned. I have memories of going with my family to clean the chapel - I'm almost embarassed to admit that I probably wasn't the greatest of helpers; certainly I was NOT as enthusiastic as my children were to help this evening. I'm sorry Mom and Dad... I'll do better next time.

And that's the news from Farm Stahronthehill... Where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average. And this particular Mom just wants the baby to stay the baby for a little longer.