Christmas Photos

It's a little early, but I haven't been on my blog in a month and it'll probably be even longer before I'm on it again. We bought a new Christmas dress for Bug, and she did have fun being pretty and swishing it. She screamed when I took it off, but that's life. Let me tell you that getting a good photo of Naya is hard. She doesn't hold still for a second. But we did manage to get a few cute ones.

Hallowen and other goodies

I won't post a ton of pictures from the Family Reunion since I didn't take too many. But I though some of you would like to see Linaya's Halloween costume and some of the things that have been occupying my time lately.

The first one is the afghan I just finished for myself. Next is Liz painting Lucy's face. I thought it amazing watching her work. The third is Naya's new favorite spot. She found out that the ottoman comes open. So now she pushes the top of and it becomes a little nest for her. She puts anything in it that she wants to play with or read and will sit there cuddling her blanket for an hour. It's really cute.

The last picture is her halloween costume. We couldn't get her to hold very still for pictures that day, but she was still a really cute kitty.

Pictures

It's been a while since I've posted pictures, this isn't because I haven't wanted to, it's because I'm notoriously bad at remembering to take pictures. However I did so this morning and I thought I would post them while I was thinking about it. Here is the quilt and hat I just finished as well as the little sweater I made to match the hat. Luckily they both fit Bug well. Notice that she's getting better at looking at the camera when I take her photo. Also included is one of her stacks, yes she still stacks, silly monkey that she is. Usually she does it while I'm trying to cook and I end up tripping over her work.

Expectations great or small

Altogether I have a happy marriage, it goes to show how little I let myself expect to be content with what I have. I love Sandin, but the boy hasn't got a romantic bone in his body. Oh he tried while we were dating, but his idea of romance certainly never meshed with mine. I've never really been bothered by this, after all I'm enough like Daddy in certain ways that I'm oblivious to a lot of it. But the expectations I had that shattered early on about love, those were the most difficult to give up. And let me say that all those old cliches are never right. "Love means never having to say your sorry," should really say "If you really love someone, you'll apologize for everything you may ever have done. Marriage is hard, but loving someone when you really want to hit them is harder. And harder still is speaking gently and lovingly to someone who just did something that you'll be paying for until the end of time, one way or another.

Like Jane I've been dying to keep my hand's busy doing something. I finished Bug's quilt finally, and after a conversation with Jane, I decided to go back into making hats. I finished one last night that I think is quite cute even though it's blue. I don't know if it will fit Bug, if not Gwendy may get it. But I was thinking of doing a hat and shawl for me for fall. I doubt I'd wear them in winter, but I like hats in the fall. I look cute in them.

In case you notice the time of this posting, I couldn't sleep, woke up disappointed and relieved, either way I'm here. Once I eat a little to slow down my tummy demons, I should be able to sleep again, I hope.

Soup season

So I'm really picky when it comes to soup, though it's the season where I really start thinking about it. I don't really like chicken noodle soup, even homemade. I want a soup with flavor, but that's fairly easy to make. I like potato cheese soup, but I don't like to make it too often because it takes too much effort. I usually make it about once a year is all. What I really like are soups and stews that I can throw together quickly and taste great. An example of this is Marilyn's bean soup recipe (with a few alterations of my own preferences and Sandin's limitations). It takes few dishes and is really good both fresh and as leftovers. Well I bring this all up because I found a new soup that I love. I wanted to make a tomato soup of my own without too much effort. So I looked online and found a simple recipe which I of course altered. It ended up being so good that I thought I would share it with those who like soups in the fall too.

Tomato Spinach Soup

1/2 sweet onion

2 cloves garlic

2 cans diced tomatoes

6 cups chicken broth

1/2 bag of baby spinach roughly chopped

1 tsp. salt

Sautee onion and garlic in olive oil (or butter). Add tomatoes, broth, spinach and salt. Cook for ten minutes or until spinach is wilted and soup is hot. Serve with bread, rolls or cheese sandwich.

Try it I know you'll love it and it's soooo easy, and cheap.

New news!

Sandin has a job, well mostly. Ever since he's been seeing the chiropractor he's been hopeful enough that he decided it was time to get a real job. He'd been approached by a company he does occasional work for in St. George so he called them up and asked him if he could get the job. After about a week he found out he had it, at least on a trial basis, until they can see an example of a website for a client from him. It's the perfect job because it allows Sandin to work from home, gives him flexible hours, and allows him to get full time hours.

So in hope and for help we finally decided to get Sandin his new computer. He's been needing one for years, and wanting one for longer. So we got him an Imac. It's beautiful and shiny and so cool, and I'm writing on it as we speak. We got an Ipod too, and Sandin goes back and forth between using his computer or the Ipod, and when he's not on either he's talking about them. He's just so excited.

Doug is finally moving out of our front room (fyi: we had it rented out as office space to a friend). It's been a while since I've felt we needed the extra room, and Doug finally gave up making money off his business. He was struggling before the recession but since his business has gone completely. The only downside to this is that Sandin isn't giving me the living room for the house, instead he's moving his office in there and we'll be converting his current tiny office into living space. On the up side I got a new chair, a red wing recliner. It's not actually new but it's still well padded and surprisingly comfortable.

And just so you don't think that Sandin's getting all the perks right now, we just got me a bike, and Bug a seat for it. We've already been on a good ride on it. This is in the hope that I can start getting more healthy. I've been overweight and feeling low recently and I thought this might be an enjoyable way to spend more time outdoor with the Bug, getting exercise , without having to chase her around, which is hard on my back.

Bug is staying cute and growing tall. She can reach doorknobs now, though just barely on her toes. This means it won't be long until she figures out how to use them. She's smart that way. We have latches on most of our cupboards and she knows how to get them open. We can't keep our cans in the cupboards, instead they usually end up in a large single stack in the center of the room. This propensity for stacking has inspired us to get Linaya some blocks. However all this has really done is made our cupboards full of blocks, the cans are still in the middle of the kitchen floor.

Silly Bug

Linaya has been going through some strange and cute phases lately. She likes to get herself wound up and laughs and laughs until she's just hyper. She's been walking around lately with her eyes closed both hands out in front of her. Actually she cheats a little, I think she likes the disorientation. She also has decided it's fun to walk backward. She goes slow until she hits something then runs to the middle of the room and does it again.

Her other new thing is singing. She's never tried to sing much before, but just this week she was watching her favorite song on Sesame Street, and she started singing with it. She didn't hit many notes, but she stopped after each word. She still doesn't say many words but she's cute.

She finally has moved away from ripping books. Instead she wants me to read to her, or she sits quietly and turns pages by herself. Sandin thinks this is because she sees Sandin and I reading all the time. Her favorite book is Piggies, and she won't go to bed unless I read it to her.

Doug is finally starting to move out of our front room. And as a last trick to teach her, he keeps trying to get her to wink. Actually she's almost got it down. She already can close only one eye but for less than a second, the other closes too because she can't just hold one down. She works pretty hard at things like this and it wouldn't surprise me at all if she can wink before most of you see her again.

Sandin and I are doing pretty well. We've both been to see a Chiropractor and it seems to have helped us both. Sandin's got work and he's staying busy. We hope he'll get more work soon.