10 Years Together....an Eternity More!

I'm a day late getting this on here...but yesterday was our 10th wedding anniversary! I hope that when the 25th rolls around we'll both still feel so young and in love as we do today. It seriously doesn't feel like 10 years. Except...that there are those four children running around our house who call us "mom" and "dad"...and we're both a few sizes bigger than we used to be...but other than that we still feel like newlyweds! Hey, we're still in school and in debt up to our eyebrows!

This is one of my favorite pictures from our wedding day. It was actually a snapshot my Aunt Debbie took of us in the bride's garden at the Idaho Falls Temple. We were waiting for the professional photographer to reload his camera...and she caught us in this candid moment. I just love it because the look on both of our faces says it all. Thanks Aunt Debbie! (click on the photo to enlarge it)

A few things we've learned about ourselves from 10 years of marriage:

1. We were told that after we were married we'd start going to bed at 10:00. Nope. We still stay up way too late and frequently past midnight. I think we're "night owls."

2. Andy doesn't like putting socks into the hamper...even if it's open...even if there's a basketball hoop over it for motivation.

3. Sherrie doesn't like filling cars up with gas. She is extremely talented at running them as low as they'll go without running completely out and then coordinating their expected run out time to when Andy is driving so he'll fill it up for her.

4. Sherrie is the family finance officer. It just works better that way. Period.

5. Andy still has flashbacks from youth when his mom would fix meals with Spam, so for some weird reason, Spam keeps finding it's way onto the food storage shelves. Sherrie once had a bad experience with Spam, and just the thought of it makes her queasy.

6. Sherrie's favorite cereal is Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

7. Andy's favorite time to eat cereal is between 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m.

8. When we're both in the vehicle, Andy usually drives...unless Sherrie is doing a quick pick-up on Cedar, Mayfield, or Euclid Hts... in which case she quickly puts on the flashers, swerves to the sidewalk and Andy jumps in the passenger seat. We are very talented at quick pick-ups. Sherrie is also very skilled now at spotting Andy in his blue scrubs walking up the sidewalk..the kids think she has super-powers.

9. Andy is a snowboarder at heart.

10. Sherrie prefers the finesse of skiing.

11. Both Sherrie and Andy love mountain biking. Sherrie is better at going up the hills...she beats Andy at endurance. Andy is better at Sherrie when speeding down the hills, jumping rocks, and splashing through creeks. He is a blurr. Sherrie once tried to keep up with "the blurr"...a very painful accident and a few scars later, she doesn't even think about it.

12. Sherrie prefers cooking extravagant meals to cooking sweets...and Andy is very talented at making sweets. So...our kids don't complain much about food.

13. If given time to relax...Andy would choose to watch a movie...Sherrie would choose to read a book.

14. Someday Andy and Sherrie are going to own 5-10 acres of land. Why? Because privacy and space are extremely important to us.

15. Andy enjoys watching Jane Austen movies with Sherrie...and Sherrie enjoys watching The Lord of the Rings Trilogy with Andy.

16. We don't do "girls" or "guys" nights...if there's actually a time when we could be together...that's what we choose to do.

17. Andy is distantly related to Paul Bunyan. He can freqently be found out in the field trimming the golf course trees with his chain saw or hatchet. Yes. He has a hatchet. It's really cute and has a belt carrying case and everything. Maybe he's part Comanche too. It could look like a tomahawk. I think.

So...there are a million more things I could say...but there ya go. We're both quirky people, and have a lot of fun being all quirky and such. We've actually had a person tell us that they don't get our relationship at all. (laughing right now! Can you believe the things people say?) That's one of the beautiful things about a marriage...nobody needs to "get it" except for the two that are married.

Hey honey...I'm so glad we "get it." Happy 10th!

p.s. After having been married for 10 years...Andy and Sherrie decided that there are a few items they would like to have. Please feel free to browse their online wishlist at Target.com...the link is below. (ahem...you think we're kidding don't you.)

http://www.target.com/lists/21ZUUCS7RPRUI

Dishwashers

Last Thursday, our dishwasher broke. I went to open it, and the handle broke off. Oops. I could hear a little piece of plastic click, and then tumble somewhere inside of the door. GREAT! So, because the door wouldn't click back into place, this smart machine, knowing that it's door isn't all the way closed, won't run. At this point, I'm wishing that we would have gone with the mediocre-intelligenced machine that really isn't all that smart.

Well, Andy takes the door apart and figures out that all we need is this tiny little piece of plastic, so he calls the parts place and orders it. They tell us that it should be in by Tuesday of the next week. At this point there are two things running through my mind.

1. GREAT! We don't have to buy another dishwasher during our last year here!
2. GREAT! I just won't cook anything requiring pots or pans, and we'll use plastic/paper dishes until Tuesday.

But then...I remembered that we had a couple of extra dishwashers just hanging around the house...they worked very well until Tuesday rolled around. These two dishwashers specialized in plastic cups, bowls, and plates...utensils, pots, pans, mixing bowls...but weren't guaranteed through the manufacturer to safely clean knives or glass...so I did those items myself. It worked out pretty well.

Whew! It's a good thing I had them just lying around the house!

Taylor's 2nd Grade Zoo Trip

During the last week of school, the 2nd graders had a field trip to the zoo. Unlike our Kindergarten run this year, Tay's class had beautiful sunny weather. I loved it! Andy took a day off of clinic to come with us, and we had a lot of fun taking a small group of them around the zoo. And, just like with Rachey's class...you'll see that Brooklynn, although only three, is not shy around siblings' friends and can easily squeeze her way to the front of any crowd. It's a talent.

Oooohhhhh.....elephant teeth.

Taylor has been nicknamed "radar ears" in our house...I thought this picture was very fitting.

And it looks like Tay's best friend Nicholas has the same ear problem.

Not to be outdone, Brooklynn quickly jumped between the two ears to show that she was just as grown up as her brother and his friends.
Well...if everyone jumped off a building would you? Apparently so. Here is Matthew's turn with the big ears, although I don't think he really understood why Dad seemed to want to squish him and his backpack carrier inbetween two big pieces of weirdly-shaped metal.

Money burns a hole...into Nyah's pocket. Nyah, the girl in purple had a quarter. All day long she was begging me to let her buy stuff. Annoying! Andy tried to teach her a concept of "saving." That didn't go very far. Finally, I saw this cool "save the rainforest" thingy and pointed it out to her. She immediately wanted to drop in her burning coin. I've got to admit...yes, I intentionally lured her into it, but hey, the rest of the trip was so peaceful...and they had a lot of fun watching it slowly roll around and around and around until it disappeared at the bottom.


Brooklynn's favorite part was the butterfly greenhouse. Here she is "reading" (because now that she's with a group of big kids, she knows how to read) about all the species of butterflies.


And here is the little group we took around. Brooklynn didn't quite make it to the front in this picture...you can see her behind Tay and Nicholas. So, it's Lizzie, Nyah, Nicholas, and Taylor. Taylor is so sad because Nicholas has now moved to Chagrin Falls.

And on the way home, we had to stop and get a part for Andy's scooter. (We are always getting parts for that thing...will it last 11 more months???) Anyway, Matthew quickly fell asleep and was snoring...I thought it was funny.

Customer Service

Customer Service. Usually when we hear that short simple phrase, especially those of us who have had that wonderful "priviledge" of working in retail sales we think of that other phrase "the customer is always right." At least, I do. I had that phrase grilled into me during my years as a department store employee...I had to deal with all sorts of people.

The old ladies who smothered themselves in bad-smelling perfumes asking me to follow them around the store holding the mound of ugly clothes they wanted to try on...all the while asking me how nice I thought their choice of colors were. Well...their choice of colors WERE nice...just not nice when put together.

The young mothers who for some weird reason decided to go clothes shopping for themselves with all of their rowdy children who liked to play hide and seek in the rounders and then got themselves lost so I was the nice lady who would calmly take them up to the front desk and announce over our loudspeaker system in a calm voice "SERIOUSLY LADY!!!!! COME GET YOUR OFFSPRING BEFORE I KICK THEM OUT ON THE STREET!!!" Okay, really I would say something like "We have a lost child with the name of 'Timmy I'mabother' ...would Timmy's mother please come and pick him up in the layaway section?"

Then there were the bored women who we would see come into the store at least 2-3 times a week, and would get upset when we didn't have new merchandise out on the floor for them to try on and leave scattered all over the dressing rooms like a bunch of slobs. Seriously...I hated to even think of their closets.

Then there were the poor husbands who would come in at 5 minutes to close on Christmas Eve wanting that perfect gift for their extremely picky wife and wanted ME to choose it....no pressure or anything. I would ask, "well, what size is she?" "Um....I'm not sure...she's kind of average, I think." Great. That really gets us somewhere. In the end, I would just pick out something I thought was fabulous in a size...whatever we had of it and made sure to tell him to save the receipt (knowing that the day after Christmas she would be in to return it).

Ahh....customer service. Well. The Walmart here in Cleveland Heights is AWESOME. Awesome for a good laugh if you can keep your attitude in the right area anyway. Since we've been here, I have had so many experiences of ridiculously bad, terrible, absolutely non-acceptable customer service issues with the people they employ there.

From the time that I waited for 30 minutes in the Express (10 items or less) lane with my 7 items, only to get up to the desk and have the colossal employee tell me in a slow drawl that I'd have to go to a different isle because my items were TOO BIG. Yep. Too big. I pointed out that the sign doesn't say anything about the size of the items, only the quantity and that since I had only 7 and not 10, that the size and quantity should average it out making my cart acceptable for her lane. Nope. Her attitude was as immoveable as her rather large-sized person. I had to take my water coolers and other camping gear to a different lane and wait again. I was FUMING!!!! 3 years later, it's funny.

Then there was the time when Andy went there on his bike only to find that they didn't have a bike lock rack...so he didn't know what else to do but to take his bike in with him. Well, of course the friendly greeter told him "You can't take that thing in our store!" In a nice loud Cleveland street slang voice. Half the store turns around to watch this tall white guy in blue scrubs try to reason with the store greeter. Andy told her that he would be happy to lock it outside if the store would kindly provide a place for him to do that. Well, they were at an impass until the store manager came out, and told Andy that he would have to leave. Andy told him that he would have to provide a place for bicyclists to lock their bikes or he would continue to bring his bike into the store. Well, the Cleveland Heights Gettomart now has a bike rack. Way to go. They also have a different manager now...I don't think the two incidents are related.

Just two nights ago, Andy and I were up doing odds and ends after the kids went to bed and both of us thought that a Subway sounded sooooo good. Well, it was only 9:00, so we thought, Great! We have time to go grab one! Like the great guy that he is, Andy volunteered to go and get the sandwich. He goes to the Severence Walmart Subway. By the time he actually gets in there, it is 9:20...but, the store doesn't close until 10:00, so he still has plenty of time, right? WRONG! He goes in there, and the girl is putting a sandwich together for this guy, she looks at Andy and says "We're closed." Andy just kind of chuckled and said "You're closed?" And she says "Ya, we're closed." So, he asks her what time they close and she says "At 9:20". Hmm...that is a strange time to close. So, he walks over to the greeter person and says, "hey, what time does the Subway close?" And the greeter tells him "oh they don't have a set time, usually between 9:30 and 10:00" hmm....what to do now. Cause a scene? DEMAND A SUB? Make it yourself? All these questions, but no answers!!! So, in the end he just laughs at the incredulousness of this store and goes to a different Subway.

Seriously. When the Gettomart trains their new employees and they come to the section of the training manual entitled "Customer Service" that's the part when the employees go out for a smoke break or something.

Oh...and I'll blog about their choice of background store music on a different blog. Seriously, Rap? Oh, that will calm people down in a hurry.

Where's Matthew?

A frequent question out of my mouth these days is "Where's Matthew?" Now that he has officially mastered the stairs (yes, it took him a while) his favorite place to sneak off to is my bathroom. He's very careful and quiet going up the stairs, but then his loud pitter patter of running feet from the top of the stairs to the bathroom is a dead giveaway as to his position.

This is what I found the other day...okay, the foot thing cracks me up.Lest you all get worried...I have long since moved out anything dangerous from underneath this cabinet. The most he will find is a nebulizer, which you see him chewing on (not dangerous for him, but maybe a bit yucky for the person who has to use it next) and toilet paper. I've come up to the bathroom before to find that he has successfully unstacked my neat pyramid of toilet paper and thrown it all over the bathroom floor. He is quite the little guy...I think he's trying to make his way to the status of "silent tornado" which his previous three siblings have been able to lay claim to in the past. He's not quite there...but getting close.

Father and Son Campout

So, I'm a little late getting this on here...but we've been on round two of Strep. Seriously. Enough is enough.

While on the Father and Son Campout a couple of weeks ago, Taylor demonstrates the fine art of eating a smore. Look and learn people. :)

First, you get a stick and roast a marshmallow. But you have to make sure and get really, really, REALLY excited about it, or it won't turn out right.

After roasting your marshmallows to perfection (which can include charring in the flames) you squish the stuff in between two grahams...but don't forget the Hershey's chocolate (gotta be Hershey's, unless you don't have any Hershey's with you, and then any other form of chocolate will be acceptable) and remember, you MUST stay very, very, VERY animated about the whole deal. Animation is the KEY to a good smore.

Next, you look at your gigantic, squishy, sticky, chocolatey mess of a smore right in the face and stare it down. This intimidates the marshmallows so that they don't think about falling out all over the place. It also lets the grahams know who's boss of the situation. And as always, remember...be extremely, extremely, EXTREMELY animated. Make sure you engage each facial muscle. This is crucial. Depending on your animation level, you can burn between 100-200 calories an hour, just eating smores!

The time for chomping down has come. Make sure that the first bite is very firm, nothing wavering. Keep those facial muscles tightened (remember those calories!) Make sure that you smack your lips and chew very loudly...this increases the tasty sensation of chocolate mixed with creamy, charred marshmallows with crisp grahams. The smacking also helps with calorie burn...maybe increasing it by 10-15 calories an hour depending on your jaw strength.

Another key factor is closing your eyes. This allows your other senses (taste and smell) to almost completely take over, making the entire experience much more yummy. It also helps you to forget that you are getting sticky marshmallows on your fingers, hands, face, pants, shirt, and whatever else is nearby. Also, remember that closing your eyes takes muscle, which means calories burning! This will increase your total burn by 20 cal/hour. We're up to 235 total calories burned here!

Yum! Don't forget to lick your fingers. Forget about the fact that you've been playing in the dirt for hours, you're in the woods now. The trick to a good smore is to lick away all of the stray marshmallow goo that gets everywhere. Just searching for those elusive drops of marshmallow burns at least 50 calories...so that brings it up to 285.

Ahh...now that you've eaten one...it's time to get that stick and start on another one.

Venting, Priorities, blah blah blah...

Okay. I HAVE to vent this one out...

I was at Walmart doing some grocery shopping today. Buying milk, cheese, anything I can get there because it's less than the grocery stores, then I head over to Dave's Market for the fresh stuff. So, I have my cart loaded with canned goods, dairy, some hot dogs, and some frozen items, and I have Matthew and Brooklynn with me. This lady is ahead of me in the checkout line, and her cart is filled beyond capacity. Truly, this woman had a talent at cart-packing. Her cart was filled with a couple matching comforter sets, a couple of candle do-dah thingys, an X-Box 360, and a brand spanking new 26+inch tv/dvd combo.

Hmm...no judgement on my part, people are entitled to buy whatever they feel like, fine with me. UNTIL!!! They have the audacity to make comments like these!

I make a nice comment on how pretty her comforter sets are, and she tells me that she "just couldn't not buy them, she saw them and loved them." and then she admits that "I actually didn't come in here to buy comforters, my two boys are at the dentist right now, and I promised them that if they were good for the dentist that I would buy them an X-box and a TV for their room."

So, I'm totally taken aback. In fact, I'm thinking..."WOW! I totally lost the parent lottery here! Gee Mom and Dad! I was good for Dr. Cutforth all of those years...and what did I get?" (of course I'm kidding guys.) So, I say "Wow, they're pretty lucky boys! How nice of you!" and she says, "Ya, but the dentist is gunna kill me, cuz now I don't think I have enough cash left to pay him."

But she doesn't stop there. She takes a glance at my cart and says, "Wow, you sure are buying a lot of food." "I wish I could afford to feed my family that well." OKAY. Here is the point where she left herself WIDE OPEN for my judgements...but I was very proud of myself. I kept all of my meanest thoughts to myself...thoughts like, "hey, return the x-box and tv and you'll have about $500.00 to spend on food today!!!"

Instead, I simply smiled...took a deep breath, and said, "I sure wish I could afford an x-box and new tv!" (I decided to let her off the hook for the comforter sets and candles...who knows? Maybe she really did NEED new comforter sets and tacky candles!)

There ya have it folks. Everyone has different priorities as to what they do with their finances...for 6 out of the nearly 10 years that Andy and I have been married we've been students, and now we're students living off of loans which we carefully budget to support a family of 6. Not easy. Sometimes you have to not buy the things that you just "Have to Have"...because that's what you do to make things work.

I do regret one thing about today. I lied to that lady. oops. I don't wish that I could afford an x-box...nope. If I had my choice...it would be a Nintendo wii.

Ahh....that was therapeutic. Thanks.

Growing Children

Our first summer out here, we didn't plant a garden because we didn't get all moved in and settled until the last week of July. (Yes, this is the house as we came to it...quite a bit different now.)

Our second summer, we did plant a garden. The kids loved it. They planted corn, peas, carrots, beans, pumpkins, butternut squash, and tomatoes. The rabbits loved it to. And the squirrels thought it rocked. The chipmunks thought we were wonderful people. And our little deer family, who lived in the back field that year became so at home in our backyard that the daddy would casually walk along my flower beds eating the blossoms...he especially liked the red petunias. The wildlife did leave us a few tomatoes, squash, and 4 pumpkins...but they devoured everything else. This, however, did not discourage the kids from going out nearly every day to weed, water, and...watch the plants grow. As the bunnies and gang would clear out more garden space, our children also had more space to plant peach pits, apple cores, banana peels, and old grapes in an attempt to plant a fruit orchard. Needless to say, our harvest was not very fruitful...thank goodness for Giant Eagle's produce section.

Our third summer, we actually went out to Idaho to visit...we figured after two years, we needed to know that the Rockies still existed outside of our memories and imaginations. I cried when we finally got onto I-15, and for the first time in my life, sagebrush looked really nice.

We decided that planting a garden would be useless because we'd be gone for three weeks, and by the time we got back the plants would all be eaten anyway. So, we skipped the garden planting. Before we left, our elderly Jewish neighbor, Harvey, who likes to give me lots of free gardening "opinions"...it's really not advice....it's his opinion on what flowers he thinks I should plant each year...and each year I smile and then plant whatever I feel like, well Harvey told me that we should plant a garden, and that my roses were dead. I know, random. But...we did not plant a garden that year, and my roses flourished.

This is our final summer here. After much debate, we decided to once again plant a produce section for the local wildlife. Except this year, we thought we'd make it open only for the especially gifted and talented wildlife by putting up a fence around it. It will be interesting to see what our harvest is like. The kiddos were so excited to plant their garden again. We did make straight rows...but I don't know how many of the seeds actually got into the rows, and I do believe that some of the corn seeds accidentally got tossed over Harvey's fence...so Harvey may be pleasantly surprised to have some Mormon corn. He did make a point to come over and inform Andy that after examining our garden, he thinks the rows are too close together. Thank you Harvey. But the point really isn't to see how many carrots we can salvage from the bunnies, or how many ears of corn we can get, or even how many big red juicy tomatoes we can pick right from the vine...the point is...well?

1. "The Prophet said to plant a garden, so that's what we'll do!" (see primary children's songbook)

2. When the kids are busy pulling plants (oops, I mean weeds, of course they don't pull up the plants) then they're not busy playing computer games, or watching movies, etc.

3. When the kids are busy digging in dirt, then they are learning about bugs, and earthworms...you know, it's science in action.

4. The kids love watching the little seeds turn into plants...and when it's "their" garden, they really do take ownership of it and learn responsibility.

5. If nothing else, we get to carve huge pumpkins at Halloween right from our own backyard, now what is better than that?

6. It gives Andy an excuse to get out the chainsaw and clear out the dead wood from the golf course trees...because somehow clearing out dead wood greatly reduces the number of bunnies who get into the garden.

7. It gives Sherrie an excuse to NOT go on as many grocery runs...because someday the plants will bear fruit, right??

8. It gives the neighbors something to gossip about...the neighborhood kids something to wonder at, the neighborhood wildlife their very own produce section, and Harvey something to give advice about...thereby bringing a sense of fulfillment to the entire neighborhood. In fact, I think in future, gardens will be more popular sources of neighborhood togetherness than block parties.

9. Okay, I was going for ten...but didn't make it. I know...you readers can fill in the last two great points of planting a garden...come on, let's have it!

Looking on the Bright Side

Here in Cleveland we have a lot of rainy mornings in the Spring...and I always try to get my kids dressed for the weather before they head out the door for school. I had to take this picture of Rachel though, because it was just too funny. There was not a chance of sunshine in the forecast, or in the sky...dark as it could be with rainclouds, yet she puts on her sunglasses. I asked her why, and she said "because it might be sunny at recess Mom." Well, there you have it, the optimism of a Kindergartener. :) This picture was from last week. Today, we have the same rainy forecast and it's dark and cloudy outside...but maybe it will be sunny by recess??? (and my house does not usually look so ransacked...we were doing painting in the girls room, and had the entire contents of the closet and dresser, etc. in the living room. I promise, it doesn't look like that everyday!)

Happy Mother's Day

Every year, Mother's Day just keeps on getting better and better. It's so fun to watch my kiddos be all secretive and everything about how they're going to help Daddy surprise me. This year, Tay and Rachey both made me things at school, and tried to be all sneaky about it when they brought them home. Rachel made me a bookmark, which I LOVE because I'm always reading, and I'm usually in the middle of several books at once so I always love a new bookmark. :) And Taylor made me a fun card and wrote that "Even though you make me clean the litter box, you are a good Mommy and I like how you take care of me, feed me good food, read me stories at night, and play with me." hmm...that card is definitely making it in the "keep until they're adults" box. It was hilarious.

The Primary's singing in Sacrament Meeting is always a highlight of my Mother's Day. This year was Brooklynn's first year singing as a Sunbeam. She was so excited to go up there. Two times she stood up to go up to the front and I had to ask her to sit down because it wasn't her turn yet. When it was time for them to sing, she made sure that she was standing right in front. It just cracked me up.

After church while we were waiting for dinner to come out of the oven, Andy took all of the kids up to our bedroom and I heard a lot of giggling and various exclamations of excitement. Each year, Andy always finds ways to make my day awesome. I love it. So, after a while of this secretiveness in the bedroom, they all come running down and Brooklynn blurts out everything they wrapped up for me. (and I pretend to have not heard a word of course)

Here she is, so excited for me to open my "Birthday Presents." We couldn't get her to understand that it wasn't my birthday. She is still convinced that it was my birthday on Sunday. Okay, so I look at this picture and realize that her face does not spell excitement...but trust me, she could hardly contain herself. :)
And, the rest of the pictures will be a bit blurry. This is because of the excitement of my children. They could hardly contain themselves, and it just made me laugh. Here they are telling me which gift to open first.So, Brooklynn convinced me to open her gift first. She had wrapped it all by herself. And she did a great job. I think she used at least a half roll of scotch tape on it. I finally got it open, and it was a picture that she had colored in her primary class. It was so cute of her to wrap it up for me. I loved it. Sometimes, I wonder why we don't just wrap up little notes and give them to each other every day...what a little sweetie.Okay, and I think the kids' favorite gift was the kitchen shears. Funny huh. I can't get over it. They wanted me to go straight into the kitchen and cut something with them. The kitchen shears are now located on top of the fridge. I'm suspicious. You can see Brooklynn's fascination with them...that spells D-A-N-G-E-R.

And this was my favorite gift. As you can tell by the blurriness of the picture, I have just been tackled by three (although you can only see two) hungry children, and I deserved it because I was holding a box of chocolate cremes...yum. I had to open them up right then, and it took a great deal of personal sacrifice to share. Yes, I admit. I'm selfish when it comes to chocolate cremes. My favorite is raspberry creme in dark chocolate. So good. Anyway...Andy knows my weaknesses very well. :)
Mother's Day always makes me realize how blessed I am. I couldn't ask for more loving, imaginative, intelligent, bright children. When they gather around me and I can see them bubbling over with excitement to give me handmade, self-wrapped gifts...and understand that that is their way of showing me how special I am to them...it really just makes everything that I do as a mother so much more meaningful. And it makes me wonder in amazement at how Heavenly Father has entrusted me...with all of the shortcomings that I have...to raise them.