Completely Finished

Lately when I think about sitting down at the computer to blog, I find myself torn between yawning and gagging. It's not that we lack things to blog about chez Bren, I simply lack the desire. However, every week when Sitemeter sends me the report of how many of you stop by, I feel guilty that I haven't given you anything new to read. Of all the things I could feel guilty about in my life I choose my lack of desire for blogging...


To ease my guilt while exerting the least amount of effort possible, I give you the finally finished backyard...


The view from the backdoor. I really dig the double gate to the pool. It makes for a little drama, which you all know I like in my design schemes, and can be opened wide for parties and whatnot.






The cinderblock wall has been painted...and repainted. The first time around it came out looking like something I don't blog about but ryhmes with schmiarrhea. My landscaper tried to convince me that it wasn't worth paying to redo because once the landscaping was in I would hardly notice it. My contractor, on the other hand, called the painter and scheduled the repainting during the convo with the landscaper because he knew I would notice it even if an entire forest was planted in front of it. Good man. (Shameless plug for Frankie: he's the best GC ever. Let me know if you ever need one.)

I have a really hard time thinking of this as done because I want the shrubs and trees and flowers to look like they've already been there for 5 years. Right now they look kinda puny...Check back in 5 years.

Cute little path between the splash pad and the fire pit. The stones are placed close together so you can frolick comfortably if you're a leprechaun* or you're under the age of ten. (*Originally I used the word midget here, but changed it to the mythical leprechaun to avoid offending any of my vertically challenged readers.)

Even though they're little baby ones, I became such a huge fan of the cyprus that there are now 16 placed around the premises. I'm hoping for the overgrown Italian villa look.

And there you have it. I've been informed that people are waiting for their homemade hot fudge, so I've got to jet. I'm not even going to re-read for grammatical errors before publishing, which pains me...but hot fudge is serious business.

Aging Gracefully

About 4 months ago I bought a Wii balance board so I could kick up my fitness routine a notch. I love yoga, but getting to a class on a regular basis has proved elusive, so the Wii Fit seemed like a good alternative. It's been gathering dust ever since I bought it. Now that Aunt Ami is here, we decided to dust it off and get it going.


We now have our profiles set up and we've done all the preliminary testing to get started. The balance test was particularly revealing. It's "not my forte", to quote the Wii, and resulted in a Wii Fit age of 41!! If I can go off on a tangent, this actually explains a lot. I'm constantly hitting my head on things. I lose my pinky toenails about twice a year from catching them on the couch as I walk by. Two of my toenails are crooked from being ripped off so many times. Random, unexplained bruises show up all the time. I stab my shoulder on the corner of the stair railing at least once a week, and just last week while brushing the pool at 7 am, I took one misplaced step backwards and fell in, fully clothed. It was cold.


So apparently I'm not all that aware of my physical self.


Anyway, I was so appalled by my age that we've joked about it around the house quite a bit the last two days. My fixation hasn't escaped Hunter's notice. Today, he came up to me and asked me how old he is. "You're 4," I answered, surprised that he needed to ask. "No," he responded, "in Wii years."

3rd Favorite Face

It's hard to believe, but this adorable little person is one year old today. Oh I love that face!

He's getting cheated out of a lengthy post because we just got home from beach camping and we're in complete disarray...more on that later.

Happy Fall

I am having a really hard time wrapping my brain around it being October already! I don't know what happened to September, but I'm enjoying the change in temperatures even if it is making the pool coldish. For some reason, this time of year always makes me think of my college days at the University of Oklahoma. The campus was absolutely beautiful in the fall.


I had a professor my senior year who used to cut us a break every now and then with an answer on a test or something. Along with the heads up, he'd always say "You're gonna want to kiss me full on the lips." It cracked me up every time.


With Fall officially here, a friend texted me a few days ago asking if I have a good Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. Heck yeah I do. Since she brought it up I had to make some. They're so good your kids will eat them and so easy you're gonna want to kiss me full on the lips.

1 package of Spice Cake Mix

1 small can of pure pumpkin (or 1/2 a large can)

mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix together the cake mix powder and the pumpkin. (You can also use a carrot cake mix if you need to.) It might seem like there's not enough moisture to incorporate the cake mix powder, but keep stirring. It will work. Once you have that mixed up, add the mini chips. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes. That part is a little trial and error, but don't over bake. It ruins them.

Seriously, that's it--3 ingredients. Try them out, then come back and tell me if you're thinking about kissing me.

Puddle Hopping

It's finally finished and we are ready for the big unveiling...






A friend of mine tried to talk me out of the boulder on the baja step before it was mortared in, but having already had 7 kids in the pool at one time, I can tell you that jump rock is a screaming success.



All the pots light up, we just had one on to test. I acknowledge that there is a certain amount of common sense expected of ones children when open fire is right next to designated diving platforms...I'll let you know how it goes. If in subsequent posts my kids are sporting gauze bandages on any extremities, that's your sign that it hasn't gone well.







These columns are probably my favorite feature. The sound of the water cascading down, the flickering of the fire, the glow of the interior pool light at night. Buddha would be happy. *gasp* Brainchild! I should become certified to teach yoga and have classes poolside at night!







The kids are all so excited the pool is finally done. The chemicals were just balanced on Wednesday and they've already been in 3 times.

Tomorrow the cinder block wall will be painted, landscaping and patio resurfacing next week. Then we'll be ready for the full before and after. If you're going to come swim let me know quick--the water is just going to get colder from here on out!

Happy Medians

Since you've all graciously returned following my recent angst, I figured you're due a fluffy post.


Back in the olden days, Sundays were a day for entertaining. Almost every week we invited friends over. Matt would put on quite a culinary performance in the kitchen and I would spend the next day and a half washing every pot, lid, bowl, whisk, baking dish, spatula....that took up space in our kitchen. I'm not complaining, it was a fabulous arrangement for us. Matt viewed cooking as an art form and I would (and frequently do) choose cleaning over food prep any day.


Now that it's just me and my littles, we never have friends over for Sunday dinner. I don't enjoy show cooking, and knowing I'd have to come up with something fabulous for dinner and clean up afterwards is hardly motivating. But Brigham asks constantly who we can have over for dinner. I knew we needed a compromise, so we began Sunday Sundaes. Brigham can invite over the family of his choice, we make a big bowl of homemade hot fudge, and everyone gets to decorate their sundae with a smorgasbord of toppings. Brigham gets his socializing and I have minimal prep and clean up. Perfecto.


Today we are all in various stages of monster colds/flu so we couldn't invite anyone over for Sunday Sundaes. It was just us, but Brigham handled it well. (I keep forgetting that he wants to be called Brig. He doesn't like having a name with "ham" in it. He's okay eating it though.) This is the best and easiest recipe you will ever find for homemade hot fudge:

*

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

4 Tbs. butter (please don't use margarine)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 Tbs. water

*

microwave for about 30-45 seconds at a time until the mixture can be completely combined. Stir in 1 tsp. of vanilla when you're finished microwaving. (Vanilla, chocolate and microwaves don't mix well.)

Mine is the one on the top. I'm a sundae puritan with just vanilla ice cream and hot fudge. Hunter's is the bottom left. He gets a little more decorated adding sprinkles and mini M&Ms, and Brigham...ahem, BRIG... is the most complex with all of the above plus crushed Oreos and mini chocolate chips.

The happy chefs made their own sundaes...






...and I, of course, cleaned up.

Stomach Issues

I've been trying to get all geared up today for a fluffy post about the progress in the backyard, but things just aren't shaping up that way. Sorry...


Have you ever noticed how your stomach shrinks when you haven't eaten in awhile? When you're not used to eating enormous quantities of food it takes less to fill your stomach than it does when you regularly put away a lot of food. Every time I've ever fasted I think about all the food I'm going to eat when I'm done fasting. But inevitably I don't make it even half way through my list because my stomach feels full pretty quickly once I start eating again.


I think this is the basic premise behind gastric bypass. Shrink the stomach so it holds less and lose weight because you can't eat as much. Unless you gradually eat more and more, then the stomach gets stretched out again, you eat more and start gaining the weight back. But if you never get your stomach all stretched out to begin with you don't need tons of food to fill it in the first place. This is of course an uneducated summary of the stomach shrinking phenomenon, but it sounds reasonable to me.


Right about now you might be wondering what the heck this has to do with anything. Last night I fell asleep thinking about the moron who said "Tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all." I can't decide which side of the love fence he was sitting on, but I can tell you that the side I'm sitting on, the loved-and-lost side, feels really crappy. (That is censored for my more sensitive readers...you're welcome.) So naturally thinking about this leads me to think about shrunken stomachs because the same thing that happens with our stomachs happens with our hearts and souls...


I was a month shy of 25 when Matt and I got married. By Mormon standards that was old. Ancient practically. So I spent a decent number of my adult years being the subject of the why-hasn't-anyone-scooped-her-up conversation among enquiring minds. Sure I wanted a guy, wanted to love and be loved and grow old creating a fabulous life with someone amazing. But it was fairly easy to fill the void with college stuff and work stuff and friend stuff. Because I never dated anyone I actually wanted to marry and I had no idea how awesome being married could be, there were plenty of ways to stay busy. Truthfully, I didn't really know what I was missing.


Now I know.


If I'm ever in a situation where I have to pick a campfire to sit by, I'm sitting with the guy who said "Ignorance is Bliss".