used to be my playground

My childhood home is not all that far from where I live now (probably 8-10 miles away), but I never have a reason to drive over there. Well, today I did. After dropping Gracie off at preschool I drove by my street and had to turn down it. Just making the left hand turn onto the street brought back crazy nostalgic feelings.

Those trees were calling my name. I miss listening to all those leaves blow in the breeze. There are so many that is sounds like running water.

May not look like anything special, but it is home.

These are the railroad tracks at the end of the street. If Joseph hadn't been in the car with me I probably would have hopped out and taken a walk down them. I spent a lot of time wandering around the trains tracks. 

Just driving down the street looking at all my neighbors houses brought back so many happy memories. It felt so familiar and at the same time so long ago. It made me wonder if this is what it will be like to be a grandma. Is that why people saying being a grandma is so wonderful? Because as you rock your grandchild or even change their diapers you are taken back to when you used to do it everyday. It was something so routine and normal that memories come flooding back and even though you don't want to go back to that stage of life (my  childhood home was perfect for my childhood, but I don't necessarily want to live there now) it is nice to have a reminder of that time? I wonder. I hope our children will love our home as much as I loved mine.

Drip Drops

Last night it rained (not very hard, but it rained). I was inside getting ready when I got a picture text from Russ of this- 

Apparently while crawling around his hand slipped and he face planted in the mud. He did not care. He loves being outside.
The kids ran and played 
Gracie would run and squeal with delight when I would try and take her picture. She kept trying to hide from me. Later she asked me if I got a picture of her and I showed her and she got mad, scrunched up her nose and tried to punch me in the stomach. I was so shocked at this behavior coming from her I could not help but laugh (plus I didn't think she was being serious). I warned her to be nice and she calmly turned and walked away and then looked back over her shoulder at me and said, "if you take a picture of me I will just garbage (delete) it later." Excuse me? Who is this girl?
And it was crazy sweet to see them all huddled up under the umbrella together. I am grateful for this new season of playing outside (and I am sure my kids are too).
Mr. Muddy face McGee
- Posted by deb on the go.

Coming up

I have been feeling a little scatterbrained lately. Kind of in a panic, but not really (what would the word be for lazy + panic?). More like a foreboding of the panic that is sure to come, and wanting to prepare now so it is not crazy later, but not knowing where to start. You see I work best with a deadline and apparently it needs to be right upon me. Right now I just keep thinking of everything I need to do, but not actually doing it.
So here is what is coming:
Hello There! House Event - more about that below
Josephs 1st birthday - nothing too big, but I will celebrate and there are some gifts I would like to make for him
Halloween - I think I know what we are doing for costumes ...kind of.
Williams birthday - before I was planning to just have a huge Harry Potter Halloween/bday party for William, but now he loves Lord of the Rings. I have no idea what I am going to do. I am kinda disappointed to be honest.
Friends Baby shower - I am excited about this
YW in excellence - We are inviting the whole ward to show support for our girls and their hard work.
Thanksgiving - this should be sorta easy. I usually just eat:)
Christmas - I like to make gifts so we will see if I can accomplish that at all this year.

See what I mean? That is a lot, right? And, yes, I know I make it all way more complicated than it needs to be, but that is the way I like it. I just want to do as much as I can as early as I can so I enjoy it too. Today my laziness changes. I am going to get my rear in gear and get my craft room organized enough to get stuff made. I am going to work on my HT!H class a little bit at a time so I don't overwhelm myself. And I am not going to become mean stressed out Debbie.

So for those of you wondering what this Hello There House business is all about, it is a home and garden event that I feel very fortunate to be a part of. I am going to be teaching a class on Chic Children's Spaces. You can find out more about the even at the Hello There! House website. It seriously will answer all your questions. And then there is The blog that introduces the teachers and also lets you know about the Meet N' Greets (where you meet those involved int he event and find out more about it) and there is only ONE LEFT. This Saturday Morning (9 am) a Joe's Farm Grill. I am always looking for an excuse to go to Joe's Farm Grill so I am glad it is there. And they are giving away a free pass to the even at this meet n' greet. Very cool. So come, I would love to see you.

You can also follow Hello There House on Twitter  or Facebook 
What am looking forward to most at the HT!H event? The gardening classes.

More about the corn

 Wednesday night there was a knock on the door and I was delivered a bag of sweet corn from Brendan and Nikki (she is the one who got the surprise shower here and can I say that the little baby-kins that popped out of her belly is such a doll. She is so tiny and petite yet so strong, it is unbelievable. I just love holding her, it is the exact opposite of holding Joseph and don't get me wrong I love holding him too, but sometimes my little arms need a rest. Also, what is the rule for how long you can write within parentheses??)

Anyway, like I was saying, they gave us some corn (actually Brendan and their cute boy Collin delivered it, but it was from all of them) So Thursday morning I started shucking.

Brendan's family grows sweet corn on a farm in Taylor and let me just say it is good. Shucking it reminded me of when I was younger my dad would wake us up way early in the morning (when it was still dark) and take us to the churches corn fields in queen creek and we would pick corn and then come home and shuck it and wash it and then my mom would take care of the rest in the kitchen (canning, but I think mostly freezing it). We had sweet corn all year long because of this. 

I cooked some up for lunch and dinner that day (hence the post with Joseph and his corn on the cob) and then on Friday I headed over to the farmers market to pick up some stuff so I could make my lunch around this corn. It was nice outside and so we walked around the farmers market with Beth and her little Hudson. when we got home it was too nice outside to go inside. So we sat in the front yard for a bit.

(oh my goodness that bottom lip! like his daddies.) 

After awhile I went walking around the yard close to the neighbors and a bee started flying around my head. I just ignored it expecting it to go away, but it didn't. It stung me right on the top of my forehead.

I was a little bit worried because the last few times I had been stung as a child I would swell in that area. For example I got stung on my hand and the swelling stopped at my elbow, or if I got stung on my foot the whole thing would swell up. So I didn't want my eyes to swell shut or anything. I called my mom who was staying with my bee keeper uncle in Idaho and they gave me some tips.

I just put my doterra lavender oil on it (a lot) and iced it as much as I could without giving myself too bad of a headache. And then I would take profile pictures of myself to see how bad I was swelling. This is as bad as it got (not bad at all). Hey my head matches my nose now:) After resting awhile I felt fine and got up to make my salad.

Corn, three different colors of heirloom tomatoes (all the juice), fresh basil, avocado oil (just a tad), and some seasonings. It would have been better if I had refrigerated it overnight. 

Then I added lettuce and fresh mozzarella and had me a yummy salad.

And Joseph had corn on the cob...again. smile.

(I can not believe I wrote so much on this post!)

Seasons

I have been thinking about seasons lately. Is it because I want the season to change so badly? Maybe. I can tell it is cooling off. But it's not just seasons in weather I am thinking of, seasons of life. 

William has homework this year. Gracie likes to do homework along with him. He and Gracie have been doing a lot of imaginary play lately. The kind I remember doing. I spent almost all my childhood pretending. I love watching them do it. The other day while we were swimming I decided to join in. William was Legolas and would row far away in his boat to catch some fish for Joseph, Gracie, and I to eat (cause we were starving). The kids thought it was hilarious that I was playing a long and I was taken back to being a kids again.

And, as I have recently posted, Joseph is getting bigger and reminding me so much of his brother and sister. As I watch him I remember things they did (so many of the same things) and it is like having them as babies all over again (only chubby this time).

As the school year started I had a huge urge to get a good schedule going for our family. This happens a lot as the seasons change. Sometimes we get more organized and sometimes we don't. I think the point is that I try cause who know where we would be if I didn't at least do that.

I am grateful for the experiences in my life that come back to me in different ways. Life just seems to cycle around for me. As I watch William go through school I am taken back to my school days. 

And you want to know something funny? I want it to cool off and be fall (like everyone else), I am sick of summer. But I remember sometime before this summer came on looking out to my back yard and imagining swimming suits and towels hanging on the pool fence and feeling excited for it. I got tired of the cold too. I am glad things change, but also glad that they come back. One way or another.

(I am not sure if I was able to express my thoughts accurately in the post. If it doesn't make sense I am sorry)

ten years.

It is so hard to believe this happened 10 years ago today. 

I guess that means my 10 year high school reunion is coming up. Yep that is right, I heard about the attack on our nation as I walked into my A-hour social studies class (late as usual). They had

 a TV set up in there and they were watching the news. This is embarrassing to admit, but when they said "someone flew a plane into The Worlds Trade Center" I said, "what is that." I had no idea what those buildings were. I had ever been to New York and had never heard of them. 

At that time I was very concerned about the implications of the attack and what it would mean for our country. I don't think I could quite wrap my head around the numbers of the lives affected by the attack (or at least I didn't). A few years ago I read the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. While the book isn't about 9-11 it is about some people who were affected by it. After I finished the book I looked up some footage of 9-11 and stayed up late into the night with tear stained cheeks. It finally hit me how sad this day was. Each year it seems to sink in deeper. My heart goes out to those who lost their loved ones and all those who had to witness first hand such traumatic events. 

I will never forget. I was eighteen, wearing a white tee and overalls, and I didn't get it.

How to get your baby to stop yelling at you

On this particular day Joseph was yelling at me a lot. Not crying, just...yelling. I was trying to make dinner and thought I would lose my mind until I thought of giving him some corn on the cob. I am surprised I didn't do it sooner considering how much Gracie liked it,when she was a baby.

Just don't get so caught up taking pictures that you burn tortillas.