Yummy Indeed

was the Butternut Soup and the fried breaded onion thingies Catherine made last night. For my part, I was so good this morning as I got up and exercised again at 5:10. Someone told me that one loses more weight exercising before breakfast--who knows if that is true. What Catherine forgot (conveniently) to mention is that the night before (that is Wednesday Night) she made some amazing corn bread and Steak on a Stick. Now you know that I am not a steak eater, but this was delicious and consequently, I ate much more than I should have. I say consequently because the plain fact for me (completely without food self control) is that delicious=massive quantities consumed. The corn bread was amazing partly because it had bacon cooked on top of it and consequently etc...

I have concluded that you all are pooling your funds to bribe Catherine to sabotage me. I am consoled by the fact that if I fail, I will fail a fulfilled man.

Speaking of fitness, Brent passed along an article from the WSJ which essentially says if you sit around too much (even if you exercise 30 minutes or more a day) you will die much sooner (I will try to figure out how to post it) which is very discouraging. You feel like saying to these people, fine why don't you pay me to walk around all day so I can be fit. Like I say if I can figure out how, I will post it.

Yummy Butternut Squash Soup!

i found a pretty awesome healthy recipe blog check it out:

Gina's Weight Watchers Recipes


I made the Butternut Squash Soup recipe which was delicious I also justified making The Pioneer Woman's onion straws I figure since the soup was basically vegetables and low sodium chicken broth we could handle them as a garnish. The pairing was fabulous! The soup is quite sweet and thick (excellent for baby food before adding the liquids :) ) and the onions were crunchy and spicy! A nice dinner for a nasty looking day. Here is my tweaked recipe:

4 Butternut squash (mine were small, but this still made a TON of soup I would probably halve it in the future)
4 cans low sodium chicken broth
1 cup milk
1 shallot minced
dash of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste


I boiled then peeled the squash then put them back in the pot with the shallot and the broth. I let them boil for 40 minutes until soft and then blended them just with a hand mixer and added the milk and spices.


here are the results!

FYI

Diana and I did the first day of the 100 pushups as mentioned below as well as:

200 situps

http://twohundredsitups.com/index.html

and the 200 squats

http://www.twohundredsquats.com/

it seems like a quick and easy way to get in some strength training we did it in about 15 minutes and diana didn't even have to change out of her jeans...

Good Luck Siblings!

Winter of FItness Woes

As dad cataloged i started the week off right by tempting the fam with amazingly soft and buttery giant pretzels (oops i just couldn't help myself...) my evil plan would have worked had i not devoured some myself :(. Although I did have a little bread slip up yesterday i rectified it with riding the bike for 35 minutes and using the ab roller (ouch). I think i am going to start the 100 push up program, (http://hundredpushups.com) I have heard it is a great way to increase arm and stomach strength. Diana and I are going to go running tomorrow, I think I might drag her to the stairs by the park as well :)

I am going to go look for some healthy recipe blogs.....

What a Disaster!

For the last twenty minutes I put together a long witty wonderful post about my day. I finished it and thought I would look around at some of the options before I posted it. It disappeared! I do not have the heart to attempt a recreation, so I will summarize. I weighed in yesterday morning at 200 lbs. I suspect based on the day's events that I will not win our little contest, but perhaps I can gain (no pun intended) some benefit from it. Ciao.

P.S. Nevermind I found and posted my lost article.

I Am Not Ashamed

Well, that may be overstating it, but I will now post my weight as of Monday January 11 at 6:10 a.m.: 200 pounds. Yes, that's right. I can't believe I am the only one who has the courage to post his (her) weight! I weigh about the same as I did in August which I believe is a minor miracle. Since I am so entranced by my own writing maybe I will treat you all to a day by day account of how the WINTER OF FITNESS is proceeding. Today, for example I was very proud of myself arising as I did at 5:05 a.m. and exercising until I was good and sweaty. I continued my triumphal start by having a banana for breakfast in addition to the usual Instant Breakfast (and Metamucil, but since that is without nutritional value maybe I shouldn't mention it). Lunch was another victory (V8 Juice, a Fiber One Bar and an apple for a mid afternoon snack) But disaster awaited in the strip mall on the corner of State Street and 90th South. Mari and I had to go down to our Inner City Ward after our computer class so I decided that I had to eat something before class; after all I couldn't wait until we got home at 9:00 p.m. to eat could I? I went to Schlotsky's (a more nutritious alternative to Burger King I reasoned) but instead of ordering a salad or cup (even a bowl) of soup I was seduced by the pictures of bread and meat and ended up eating a whole ham and cheese sandwich. Curses. I didn't need all of that food. I almost stopped at half a sandwich, but was overcome by the temptation. My downward spiral continued as at our Inner City Ward the Relief Society had an activity with refreshments. Okay, one cookie. I hit rock bottom at home where Catherine had made wonderful soft pretzels. All in all not a banner day for the contest.

By the way, thank you James for allowing us posting rights, even if it is only for this limited purpose. I am sure you all will thrill and delight to a detailed account of my eating habits over the next five months. Ciao!

The Aged Parents Get a Voice

I had to write something since it the first time in the history of the sibling blog that the Aged Parents have been able to post. Thanks! Love, Your loving mother

Biggest Loser

Ok team, sorry I have not been as on top of this as I should. I have been kind of busy getting back into the swing of things. I seem to remember we decided Monday was going to be the weigh in day, but if you want to do it today I am sure that is ok too. You don't have to post your initial starting weight if you do not want to. Then every Monday you can post how much weight you have lost in absolute terms or in percentage of weight loss or both. I am thinking I will just create a post called "weigh in" and you can add your weight loss in the comments.

Scholarship

I applied for a scholarship to study in China and I found out today that I have passed through the first round of the application process. Now I have to apply directly to the Chinese embassy. They want letters of recommendation, transcripts, a copy of my BYU diploma etc. so I have been scrambling today to get everything put together. I have to get a physical for it too. It is going to be a big pain.

Heaven help me

Last night at 2 am after trying to get Gideon to sleep for about 4 hours I finally put him to bed for the night in his carseat where he slept for 6 hours. If I don't get a nap today my children will have a VERY grumpy mom all day.

First post in a long time

I thought it was best time to get back on the sibling blog. Let the sibling Blog Resurrection project begin......

Death To Evidence

But in 24 hours I will be done with it.

Christmas

It has been so much fun to have Cat (otherwise know as "duck" by Ezra) and Andrew here to visit. Can't wait until Christmas when we can all be together!!

Cog

Cool commercial.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Enough said.

I'm pretty sure about half of the words coming out of my mouth lately have been "no" or some other form of "don't do that". Hopefully Ezra won't remember this part of his life too much because it would result in serious insecurities regarding trying new things ☹

Synthpop!!!!

Puppies

PUPPIES!!!!

2 a.m.

So, this is the kind of thing you see when you are watching TV at 2 am. I know you want one.

Andrew's Done!

I got to talk to Andrew today. It was nice to have a conversation with him. I can't believe he is done with his mission. I bet Diana and Catherine are excited to see him come home on Monday. I can't wait until we come home for Christmas, it will be awesome!

Smooth Jazz

So I created a pandora account which is supposed to pick music for you based on what they think you will like. I was listening to it today when I heard a song that I remember hearing on the breeze 97.9 fm.

Scary.

Nostalgia

So I have been unproductive and looking at old blog entries for a while now. We were pretty witty at one point and then it kind of petered out. Maybe it was because Andrew left, he was always good for a laugh.

On a related note, he is done with his mission in two days! That is so crazy! I am excited to see everybody for Christmas, it should be super fun. We can eat breakfast for dinner and watch the Muppet Christmas Carol etc. Maybe we can get Ezra to jump off of the sign since everybody else is too mature to do that now.

Also, I will be home in time for the Tab Choir Christmas concert which will be awesome.

Revive It!

come on

The Blog is Dead

True Story

Marco

What you can get for 4 bucks...

Yesterday we went to Ross to find some shirts for Joe. We came across this video and thought we would get it for Ezra since he loves trucks so much (and since I love laying down so much).....pretty great theme song if you ask me : )

80's music rocks

Especially this

Bust My Buffers

For all of you toddler TV pro's out there you know that is from "Thomas and Friends" which is one of Ezra's new favorite shows. I am having old memories of me with the Turner boys come to me every time I watch it with Ezra. This show has brought out quite a sensitive side that I didn't know Ezra has. There are a few episodes where some trains crash or get torn apart and every time that Ezra sees those parts he comes to me whimpering until the trains get better. Who knew? I hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Going Home

We are going to be making a trek out to Utah next week thanks to the generosity of Karen's parents. Karen will fly out next week, and I will follow her the next week. Unless of course I get a job. (I really hope I get a job, although I do want to see every one too).

Sleep

So Sophie has developed this unpleasant habit of sleeping until about three in the morning and then waking up every half an hour. She has done this the past few nights, and it was starting to get old. She goes down at seven o'clock with little problems, but lately she has been getting up in the middle of the night. Yesterday we decided she might be getting hungry so we fed her rice cereal before she went down, and she slept from seven until six thirty. It was very nice. Of course, we ruined it by watching the season finale of Lost until eleven. Which, I don't know if any of you watch lost, but if you do, what do you think?

Sophie

So we don't really have a life anymore apart from Sophie, so here are some pictures of her.

PETV

Meat is murder....tasty, tasty murder

You know you live in Arizona when....

1. Your 2 year old son has sandal tan lines in April
2. You take your kids to the "park" at the mall because it's too hot to go to a real park
3. You are panicking because all toddlers take swimming lessons here and you are going to be looking like a whale in no time (okay that one is just for me)
4. You enjoy (usually) being up at 6 am to enjoy the 60 degree weather before the 97 degree afternoon comes
5. You brag in the winter and beg for mercy in the summer!

Type A

So we were looking at Liz's question if she is type A or not, and Karen thinks that she is type A. Maybe it is just an oldest sibling thing. Liz and Karen definitely share some similar personality traits.

Easter Present

Hello All,

The easter bunny visited Ezra this year and brought him a basketball hoop for the bathtub.  Here is a sample of how he reacted....I think he liked it!  (Warning:  this video contains cute little boy nudity)

Sibling Poll

Today at the doctor's office one of the resident's said to me "yeah, we've noticed you are a little 'type A'. So siblings, what do you think?

The first Ezra I've seen in the news....

Too bad this is the story : (

And if that isn't enough bacon for you...

Check this out.

Because Everything Should Taste Like Bacon...

Buy this product today!!!

Help!

HELP... it's March 20th and I'm hot

Choking Hazard

BYU has not won an NCAA tournament game since 1993. They are continuing their proud tradition of tanking at the big dance today.

some stuff for you guys...james the first one is for you

Wiretap

Hey Cat or Dia,

How did you subscribe to wiretap? I have looked for it on i tunes and can't find it. Also, if you have the Radiohead episode could you send it to me, I wanted to listen to it again.

Ezra has a crush....

on Suze Orman. You know that lady who gives financial advice? I was reading an article about her in a magazine and there was a big picture of her on one of the pages. Ezra came up to it and started waving and tilting his head. Then he grabbed the magazine and started kissing the picture. Not the girl I would pick for him, but it was very funny!

Yep and here it is

Catherine Got a Haircut

Looks good!

Weird, but funny

Okay, instead of you guessing how I came upon this website here goes my web search explanation (which are always funny when I look back on them).

1- I am watching TV with Joe and see a commercial for Red Lobster
2- I think "mmmm I want some of their cheesy buscuits"
3- I search for a copycat recipe
4- One of the recipes I find is on the "Red Lobster Blog"
5- I think "what in the world would a 'Red Lobster Blog' contain"
6- And here we arrive at "God Hates Shrimp"

What an exciting Friday night! Love you all.

Blast from the Past

make sure your volume is up

Funny

Important Things with Demetri MartinWed 10:30pm / 9:30c

Timing - Best Time/Worst Time

Joke of the Day
Stand-Up Comedy

Get Funny Ringtones
More Funny Videos

I'm Going For It

So, Since no one has made any crazy objections to the blog going public, I am making it public. If we have problems with it later we can address them.

Your Thoughts

So in an effort to get people to write on this dang blog a little bit more (I am guilty as anybody of blog neglect) I am trying to hook up an RSS feed so that we can be updated when there are new posts. I think that the only way to do this is to make the blog public. What do you think about this? Is that something everybody would be interested in? Or should we just keep it the way it is.

On a related note, I have given in and updated my facebook account.

Test

this is a test

Funny

Go to google and type in the phrase "I am extremely" and wait to see what appears at the bottom to finish your sentence.

Goo

So grades come out on Monday, and I am not very excited about it. I don't think that I did very well because of the baby craziness. I am nervous to check to see what they are. Grrr. Oh well, life goes on.

Where is everyone? I'm bored, tell me a story!

hmmm

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/28527841?gt1=43001

You know you're a stay at home mom when....

You know you're a stay at home mom when your current pet peeve is the boy named Miguel (it's sad enough that I know his name) on Barney who has the nasaliest voice in the WORLD and has NO rhythm to be able to dance along with "Mr Sun" and other such fun songs. Sigh.

The Best Headline I Have Ever Seen

Seriously funny.

Seen this?

Have you guys seen this.... you probably have, I'm kind of behind when it comes to the funny websites, but here it is if you haven't- he he.

Curse the International Trade Final (curse finals in general actually)

As long as we are cursing things, I am about to have a very unpleasant three hours with an international trade final. I feel like I know the stuff pretty well, but finals tend to be a crap shoot. I just hope I don't freeze up and type absolutely nothing. I will be so excited a week from Thursday at six p.m. when I am done with finals. Until then, send all of your smart mojo my way. (send some mojo over to Catherine too while your at it)

Curse the common cold

You know how you don't know that you use certain muscles for something until you have done it so many times it hurts? Such is the case for me with blowing my nose. Apparently, you use some muscles in your back, if anyone is interested.

Overall, I have preferred being a mother to the other jobs I have had, but there are some downsides. Unfortunately, there is no calling in sick- and my boss seems to have no clue that I don't feel well and would like for him to stop yelling. On the other hand, I am sure at most other jobs you don't have a cute little boss that you can cuddle with while he is watching Barney!

Happy Monday all.

You Know Its Finals Time When...

The Georgetown International Law Library is full before noon.

Seriously, the library is usually pretty empty until around three o'clock, but the week before finals it is packed starting at about ten. It makes it a little difficult to study with all of these people around.

Self Explanatory

Christmas

Cat, do you remember when you and Di and Andrew used to pretend it was Christmas morning and unwrap gifts that you had wrapped up in towels? I laughed so hard when I found out that you guys did that. I guess it is no worse than me and Liz saving the sheet of bubble wrap to pop when we got up on Christmas morning. Pretty silly.

By the way, are we drawing names for gifts? Karen and I were just planning on getting presents for everybody. But we can draw names if you like.

Dream

Last night i dreamt that it was christmas time and all of us were home...everyone was there including Andrew and James' and Karen's baby. It was snowing outside and the house was all warm and nice, we were having so much fun. It was a great dream and it made me miss all of you so much! I hope all is well, I love you!!

yeah.....

So, I stumbled upon this tonight- uhhhh that's all I can say about this

Calling All Catherines

Catherine where are you? I have tried to call you for two days now. Are you ok?

Dear Catherine

I fixed your picture.

More videos

Where is everyone?  Probably busy, eh?  Well, here are some more videos of Ezra yet again.  He has now graduated from dancing to his phone toy to dancing with his favorite show's intro (although, I don't think he really likes the show, just the theme song!)  He has also discovered the fun of the luv sac now that we have it back....thanks to Kathy and Ann!

I know its backwards but I am excited

hey there babies

so I thought i would post a couple of pictures of me and Tim in yellowstone... we had a really good time, it was absolutely beautiful there and i feel like i can appreciate it much more now that i am not little ;)

Party

Hi again,

Here is a video of Ezra's party with all of his guests...it was after his bedtime so he was kinda grumpy :)

Videos

Hi All,

I hope that all of the siblings are doing well. Where are you all???? Here are some Ezra videos that I have failed to post. Lately he has loved this phone of his that plays music and he likes to rock out to it. Today he took a ton of steps and we got a few on tape!! I was going to put some video of his b-day party, but I can't get them to work. I'll have to get to them later. Love you all- tell me how you're doing!

A Walk and a Warthog

Hello Siblings,

Things are coming along here in Tucson. We are getting used to our new digs and kind of getting used to the heat. We have been going on walks around sixish when it is a little bit cooler and to tie Ezra through his pre-bedtime grumpiness. Today as we were walking in our little neighborhood we came upon a javelina- basically a warthog. It was BIG and I was afraid it would run after us and attack Ezra, but it didn't. I couldn't help but think about that scene from Rescuers Down Under- isn't it a warthog in that one? Anyway, there is my exciting story for today. Love you all.

What I'm Reading

In the spirit of Karen I have posted what I am reading. What about you?

Ella Enchanted

So I just finished "Ella Enchanted". I liked it a lot. You just wanted to kill Hattie. It was sooooo much better than the movie (no surprise). Now Diana says I should read Ulysses :o)

Movie and Podcast

Hi all! James and I watched a great movie last night called "The Dish" It's all about the satellite dish in Australia that helped broadcast pictures when man first landed on the moon. Also, I recently discovered the podcast "Radio Lab". It's pretty entertaining. It talks about science and stuff. I really like it. So you'll have to check it out!

Grades

So grades were supposed to be posted yesterday at six. I am such a worrier that I couldn't sleep the night before etc. and I waited with breathless anticipation until six o'clock, turned on my computer, went to the site, clicked on the link and....

DISCOVERED THAT ONLY TWO OF THE GRADES WERE POSTED AND THREE OF THEM WERE STILL MISSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was not pleased.

Plus the grades that I did see were two measly B's so I was not happy with that either.

Long story short I got the rest of my grades today and happily they are better than the ones I got last night.

I ended up with a cumulative GPA of 3.48 which should be good enough to put me in the top third of my class and on the dean's list. (I won't know for certain until Friday)

Anyway that is the story of how I almost had an aneurysm because of the registrar's office.

Ezra is standing!

Hello all,

This week I have started packing, and Ezra has started standing!  I haven't made a huge dent in the packing thing, but I am glad I have at least started. Here is a video of Ezra standing up with us today.  Love you all.

Hot Hot Heat!

Hey everybody. Sorry I haven't posted in such a long time. We have had Karen's family out here visiting this past week. It was really nice to see them, but it decided to get crazy hot just in time for them to come out and see us. It was like ninety six degrees and crazy humid. Not cool, in more ways than one (wink). (typing puns is not as fun as saying puns). Karen's family went home today, and she took tomorrow off as well, so she gets an extra day off tomorrow. The professor I am working for is going out of town starting next week so I won't have to meet with him for a while which will be nice (it is kind of stressful to meet with him) Other than that we are just working hard to stay cool.

Haircut

Last week Ezra had his first official haircut.  We have had to trim his little tuft in the back a few times before, but this time we got his whole head of hair.  Here is the first part of his haircut and a picture of the final product!

Random

But funny.

Bored on Sunday...Again

James told me I need to post on the blog. So here is my post. I'll try to do better, but there are no guarantees :o). So...I'm sick. Yuck! Everything makes me nauseous. Even someones breath. Thank goodness they say this will go away. Liz asked me if my sense of smell had become super human. Well, it's now happened. I like plain pasta, rice, rye crackers and water. Anything bland is super. So there is my rant on morning (all-day) sickness. But I must say that James is fabulous. He has cooked dinner and done dishes and cleaned out the fridge. On a happier note, we wen to see Indiana Jones last night. James thought it was pretty stupid-which it was. But would you really expect any less from an Indiana Jones movie? For those of you who have not seen it, there is a funny twist at the end :o) My family is coming to see us on Wednesday. I'm excited to see them! It will be extra nice not to have to go to work.

cool website

This is pretty cool

Names that whisper love....

Hello All,

As you can tell from the title (maybe) I have been reading "Here at the Scenic View Motel".  I finally bought it and I am glad to have a copy of my comfort book around.  It is much better to read at 3 am when I can't sleep as opposed to "A Thousand Splendid Suns"...which isn't so relaxing.

On a different note, here are some videos of Ezra.  He has just started pulling himself up on things.  Mostly just my hands and legs, but yesterday I found him standing up in his crib and today he has been pushing himself up on his toy basket.  Great Grandpa Parsons visited on Sunday so Ezra got to hang out with three greats.  Hope everyone is doing well!

Finals Are Over!

Finally!!

this is pretty funny

Hey there

We are bored on Sunday so here is a picture of us. I hope everyone is doing well.

One down, three to go

24 hour property take home + James = one gigantic headache

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Hey guys,

Here are a few videos of Ezra for your enjoyment. For awhile he has given us a definite cue of twisting his wrists and ankles around for when he wants something....here are some examples.   As you can see he does it when he wants anything, be it Dad or food.  Joe is playing his guitar more now, and is taking lessons from his cousin Leah.

I guess Ezra has decided that the traditional knee crawling is just not exciting enough for him so he does a bear crawl around.  It's pretty cute.

Love you all!!

LIke a Frog in a Pot of Boiling Water...or not

turns out it isn't true I wanted to try out for myself but mom suggested looking on Snopes who would have thought too bad for all those mutual lessons and new era articles i suppose they will have to think of a new metaphor

I guess it was funny!

Hello Siblings,

This is a video we got of Ezra one night last week (I'm not the best camerawoman).  He was really tired, and for some reason Joe decided to start barking at him. This was the result!

but yet

This has been bugging me for months now, so I have decided to vent. I swear at least 3 times a day I hear someone say blah blah blah, but yet blah blah blah. Isn't it just but or yet? One of my dumb pet peeves. Love you all. No ifs, ands, buts, or yets about it.

Scary

This is scary, buy a shredder or use your fireplace.

Coolness

Coolness

Death By Printing

Trauma at the Bates household this morning. So I printed my take home exam last night thinking that I will wake up early this morning, look it over one more time and turn it in. I woke up at about six forty-five, read it one more time and found a few errors that I needed to correct which I marked with a pen. I then decided to replace the ink cartridge in the printer and print it. When I replaced the cartridge and tried to print it wouldn't work. I kept trying but the dang thing wouldn't print. It is now about seven o'clock and I have to turn the exam in by ten. I get docked a full grade for every five minutes that it is late. I decide to save it on a jump drive and go to the local copy place and get it printed there. The dude tells me it will take about an hour to get it printed. I wanted to punch him, but I didn't. So we decide to take it up to Karen's office and get it printed there. I just about blew a gasket on the train but we ended up getting to Karen's office in plenty of time and she printed it just fine. I just turned it in. It has been an exciting morning.

Good Times

Cat, I was checking my e-mail today and I saw a banner ad for investools. It made me think of you. Hope everything is going ok with your finals. Hang in there you can do it!!!!!

My coach calls me the train

so i am at the library.....and i just saw Jeff Craig that kid is as big of a tool now as he was when he was 10

have a nice night!

Just Hangin Out

Hi all,

Here is a video of Ezra doing what he does a lot now during his waking hours.  Love you all!

April Fools

Go to Youtube and click on one of the featured videos.

Make sure you have headphones/the sound enabled.