"I'm Going to Space!"

Both of our girls want to be astronauts when they grow up. I say both, but Rachel really wants to be an astronaut. She loves airplanes and whenever the topic of careers comes up she unwaiveringly says she wants to be an astronaut. Sometimes she'll be playing quietly and totally out of the blue she'll say "I'm going to space." 

Now, as a parent, I'm not sure what to do. I know it's possible that she'll be an astronaut. However, it's very improbable. Do I crush the dreams of a little girl? No, I've decided to use it to my benefit. Muahahahaha! Whenever Elizabeth wants to shirk on her homework I tell her you have to be really smart to be an astronaut and get really good grades. I think it's true. It will work better on Rachel when the time is right, she wants it more. It's great discovering the key to parenting, I just have to be more manipulative than they are. Why didn't anyone tell me this before?

Viewer Discretion Advised - This is Disgusting

First of all, what follows is pretty gross. I debated on whether or not to put this, but I figured I'm boring enough in real life so I might as well be entertaining online.

I (Eric) have been cursed with a hereditary disease called lipoma. It started sometime around my freshman year, I noticed a big lump forming on my hip. I didn't think much of it at the time, but with my Mother's history of cancer it started to worry me during my mission. You must realize, this was before the Internet so I could not diagnose myself. At any rate, I called the mission doctor and he told me it was lipoma. They are non-malignant (except for the rare liposarcoma) fatty cell growths right under the skin, and most don't hurt too much, unless they get bumped. Think of it like having marbles taped to your skin, they don't hurt until you apply pressure.

It turns out, in the ensuing years, the number of lumps have dramatically increased. I've literally got dozens of them all over. Luckily not on my face or neck though. But my arms, back, legs, etc. Anyway, I finally decided to see a doctor about it and see if there was anything that could be done. Luckily my insurance covers the removal. Plus they were able to tackle a few at a time, which is nice when I have that many.

See the before and after pictures below. I think a scar is much cooler than those un-natural lumps. I'll be going back many times this year to have more of the same done. But the two in the picture are the biggest ones.

It's a minor outpatient surgery of less than an hour. It didn't hurt, they numbed me first. But unfortunately I had a Vasovagal episode. That's a fancy way of saying that I broke out in a cold sweat, went totally white, and nearly fainted. Him working on those big ones got to me. After they semi-reclined me and I calmed down I was perfectly fine while he did the rest. I think I'll be okay from here on out. I know, I'm wuss. That's why I can never give blood, I'm sure I would faint.

So, what do you viewers prefer: the scars or the lumps?

P.S. The coolest part is that he had to make one long cut to get the big one out below. But then he was able to move the other big one that's right next to it over and pull it out of the same incision. How cool is that?

Love Is Never Having To Say "I Love You"

(Eric speaking). This is a little conversation I had with Elizabeth today.

Me: Guess what?
Eliz.: What?

Me: You know what I'm going to say, don't you?

Eliz.: You love me.

Me: I love you

Eliz.: Sometimes I don't like it when you tell me you love me

Me: Why?
Eliz.: Because it makes me all bored inside.

Me: You don't want me to tell you I love you?

Eliz.: Sometimes it makes me bored in the day

A Letter to Grandma

Even though we couldn't come with you to Mexico, thanks for bringing us back these beautiful dresses. We got lots of comments from people at church and it's always fun to match each other. Next time you go somewhere fun, can you ask mom and dad if we can come too?

Love,

Elizabeth, Rachel, & Evelyn

Our Little Hippie

Gooey Cookies

Lately I (Eric) have been into making dessert. It's not that I'm great at it, I just enjoy yummy desserts. I really should have taken a picture of the egg nog cheesecake I made over Christmas, that was delicious. The pumpkin cheesecake over Thanksgiving was good too (do you sense a theme?). But mostly I just try to find recipes that maximize the good taste to effort in preparing ratio. I thought the best was dump cake, but this recipe might trump it:

Gooey Cookies:

2 cans sweetened condensed milk
1 bag chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)
2 packets of crushed graham crackers (as in 2 out of the 3 that come in a box)

Mix together and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Simple, gooey, and delicious. I would have crushed the graham crackers a bit more if I could do it again, it forms a kind of cookie crust.

I go Mountain!

Rachel doesn't always form perfect sentences so if you ask her what we did this past weekend, she'll say "I go mountain!" We want to get into snowshoeing so we saw REI was having a snowshoeing event up at Echo Lake Park, just an hour and a half away on Saturday so we went. It took awhile to get everyone suited up and warm and then we stood in line forever to try some snowshoes on. I definitely think we'll be buying some to use in the future as it's just hiking on snow, no skill required and no expensive ski lift ticket to buy. I love how we're close to the mountains because they are gorgeous every season of the year.

The girls had a blast climbing on the rocks while we waited in line.

Yes, I have Evelyn in the Baby Bjorn under my coat to keep her and myself warm. She was asleep the whole time and it wasn't all that hard walking with her and snowshoes on.

Evelyn was just too cute this afternoon with all her smiles to pass up a photo-op.

Our Budding Photographer

One of the things we got Rachel for Christmas was her own little digital camera. Here are some of the first pictures she and Elizabeth took.

Christmas & Birthday Pictures

Since it's already 2009 and the Christmas decorations have all been packed away, I thought I'd finally post the pictures. Christmas Eve aka Elizabeth's birthday started with cookie decorating over at Aunt Lisa's house.

Cookies, Yummy!

Horsing around with Aunt Lynne.

Celebrating Elizabeth's 5th birthday with cake & ice cream.
Playing with presents from Aunt Lisa. I now present Queen Elizabeth.
Playing out the nativity scene with Mary (Elizabeth) and Joseph (Mike).
Opening Presents Christmas morning.

More presents to play with.
Christmas dresses.
Our beautiful Christmas girls.