When good haircuts go bad!

Me again. Boy am I back on the bandwagon! I'm sure it will die down soon.

We all know I'm extremely frugal, right? So what kind of cheapskate would I be if I didn't cut my kids hair myself? I couldn't even show my face at the thrift store if I actually PAID someone to cut my kids hair. And if I couldn't go to the thrift store my whole family would be naked which in some circles is considered bad. SO, I cut my kids hair.

Eli loves it and wants another one immediately after I finish. :) Same thing with getting his nails cut, ears cleaned, etc. Funny kid. Nate HATES it. Hates, hates, HATES IT! At the mature age of 8, he has quit throwing tantrums about it. But just barely.

We have been long past due for haircuts around here. I always know it's time because Eli goes from looking like Tiger Woods to Cosmo Kramer. So we got down to business, got out the clippers and Eli went first as usual. All was going very well until the end when I went to shave his neck. Apparently the clippers need some adjustment because they nicked Eli's neck. In reaction, his head whipped around and then this happened.

You're probably thinking that the bloody nose was the result. You're wrong. The nose happened earlier in the day in the house center at preschool. Don't you just hate domestic violence??? Kidding. His teacher emphasized the fact that it was not a result of a physical incident. I think that there may have been a physical incident with his finger and his nose. When I said something to that effect to his teacher she looked at me with complete confusion. Come ON?! Are you telling me that a preschool teacher is oblivious to the rampant nose picking that goes on in that room? BACK to the real issue. Notice, if you will, the missing eyelashes in the middle of the eyelid? Yep, I did that. I assured him that they would grow back, so he wanted me to take a picture RIGHT away because "they might grow back before Dad got home and he wouldn't be able to see what happened." AND he wanted Dad to see the cool hair on his chin ("just like Dad's hairy chin"). Doesn't he look so ruggedly satisfied with himself? He is. And me? I'm freaking out that I came within a quarter inch of his eye! BLAAAAA!

We are now at least daily checking to see if they have grown back yet. They haven't.

I'm Published!!!

Oh yeah! You read that right. I can now say that I am published...kinda. But even if it's "kinda", an inappropriate amount of pride is welling up inside me. Especially since it took almost no effort and I had completely forgotten about it until I was alerted by email (which I almost deleted because I didn't even recognize the authors name.)

I'm sure you're dying to know which incredible work of mine is being published. My recipe. I know, you're disappointed now. Good thing I'M still impressed with myself. :)

I got an email months ago from a friend informing me that a woman was compiling a World Wide Ward Cookbook that was to be published by Deseret Book. She was requesting recipes that had some kind of family tradition/story attached to them. Well, everyone has one of those so I didn't really think that I would be chosen but it was about time that I got the recipe on paper anyway (it's just been in my head until now.) So I submitted it, and probably got some kind of acceptance notification after that but I delete everything I don't recognize and this was not even on my radar after the day I submitted it.

Are you just licking you lips to know what scrumptious recipe I submitted? Sadly, I can't properly tell you. I can say it poorly in Mandarin Chinese but I definitely can't type it. I think I titled the recipe "Chinese Dumplings" in an attempt not to slaughter the language.

The story behind it is that my Dad served his mission in Taiwan ooooh sooooo long ago. At that time missionaries in Taiwan had "house boys" that did the cooking, cleaning, etc. My dad quickly learned that having them make american food could be detrimental to his health since they didn't now the first thing about american food and the local food was fantastic. He loved the dumplings particulary and learned how to make them.

My family made these every General Conference weekend. Together we would fold them and we all (well, almost all, Eric thought they felt like jellyfish and they were not his favorite) LOVED to eat them! They are still my favorite food and they are my kids favorite food too!

And THAT is the whole story. My "major award" for being chosen is that I get a free copy of the cookbook! I'll take that over a leg-shaped lamp with a swanky shade. Then again, after looking at my choices side by side...I may have spoken too soon.

Pay it forward

My friend Heidi, and my husbands occasional nagging have encouraged me back on the blogging horse. Oh, and I got a much more functional camera, which will help (I hope). So, if anyones checking and wants to do this then comment and you'll get something groovy from me!

THE RULES:
1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me. (it will be a surprise but I promise to make it something fun)
2. Winners, you must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!
3. The gift that you send to your Three Friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love! (cheeky) If you are not one of the Top Three Commenter's on this post, you can still play along. Please take the button and post it on your blog; start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same!

More from my Beautiful, yet crazy kids!

So Nate brought this funny bunny mask home from school and of course, and without hesitation, Adam put it on Cecily while she is helplessly confined in her chair. As you can tell she was really hating having the mask on. She laughed and smiled and laughed. She kept trying to take it off but Adam and Eli were laughing too and made her keep it on. So with all the hilarity and joviality in the air, and having noticed all of the fun and positive attention that Cecily was deriving from this frolic, Eli had to be a part.

There really isn't anything more to say about that picture except, "WOW!" He is like a scary pirate bunny winking through his one good but very squinty eye. The smile is really all it takes though to know the Eli is one wild and crazy guy. Oh,and please, disregard the random empty gatorade bottle in the background. I have no idea why that is in the picture or why I didn't edit it out with all of me newfound photoshop skills. Obviously we just finished dinner or something. Nice!

Eli, Eli, O!

I've been shirking! But I'm back. A little weekend get away and bout of the flu and I'm totally out of my groove.

I have to write about Eli today. There is always so much to say about the little man. My mother-in-law was a very spirited little girl and she remembers her mother introducing her to friends they would see at the store or wherever. Her mom would say "... and this is Melanie. She is the spice of my life." What a great way to put it! I've used that a couple of times lately. "This is Eli, the spice of my life." OH MY is he spicy. It's so much better than saying "this is the reason I could sleep 12 hours a day" or the "handful" comment.

All of this background info is really just to set up one of the funny things that Eli has said for the past couple of days. On Mondays we have Family Home Evening. It's a time that we spend as a family having a gospel centered discussion an activity and songs, etc. Some are fantastic and others have good intentions....:) but this Monday was particularly good. We were discussing that Satan does not have a physical body and he is so jealous that he tempts us with things that destroy ours. We talked about all of the physical temptations (minus "intimacy", our crowd is a little young for that). Then we talked about the obvious benefits of living healthy. We then read a scripture about the "hidden treasures" (scroll to the bottom of the link) of living healthy and did a fun activity involving finding a hidden treasure after doing something that was obviously beneficial. The lesson must of have stuck with Eli. A couple of times he has said very seriously "the devil wants my body." I know what he means and I really try to take this seriously and reitterate part of the lesson, but it's very hard to not chuckle at a 3 year old saying " the devil wants my body." He's quite a guy.

Here are a few reasons I love Eli. When we started doing puffs in Cecily's hair Eli was all over it. He still sticks her barretts in his hair. If it looks fun, Eli will do it. A cookie, a big wheel and some puffs. Now that's a good day.

Next pic. This was obviously a while ago. But when he does something he does it big. If one was good, two HAD to be so much better.

Last pic. Back to the fun...who knew that the empty detergent bucket and fabric softener box were a drum and a hat? Eli did. These are the things I need to remember when I flop down exhausted in bed at night.

I just love my guy!

Easter is on it's way!

So, we still don't have the digital camera but I was looking on my friend Anna's blog and she had a tutorial about how to add color to black and white photos. I actually did it! And since Easter is coming, I thought I would share my results. Thanks Anna!





So here is the original picture.

And here is the enhanced photo.
um, it's not loading. I'll try later. :) Anna, could you please post a tutorial on why my pic isn't uploading and how to FIX IT!!! Too big probably. I don't know.

Much, much later... Anna is a GENIUS! She was RIGHT. It was saved funky. Here it is! So cute, eh?

My Family

Some of you that are reading this are new friends that I have met since moving to Rochester a month ago. Others are friends and family that I have known forever. I thought I better post a picture of my family so that if you don't know them, you can see who I'm talking about, or if it has been so long since you saw us that you can't remeber what we look like you'll have a visual. :) I also haven't uploaded a photo for quite a while so I better try my hand at it and see if it works.


I did it! Woohoo! So, here we are. This was taken by my skilled and hip sister-in-law Lindsey. It was taken outside of the Logan LDS temple on the day Cecily was sealed to us. It was beautiful and wonderful. Happy, happy day. If you have no idea what I'm talking about you can go here for a better explanation than I can give: http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/basic-beliefs/membership-in-the-church/temples-and-family-history Yeah, I did a link. I ROCK!
Anyway, that's us for today. When I finally figure out where our digital camera (bane of my exsistence) is located since the move, I'll post some recent pictures. Really the only difference from the picture above is that Nate now has front teeth (and so does Cecily, come to think of it) and Cecily has gigantic hair that I LOVE!

beginnings

Well folks, here I am. I've done some blogging but never had a blog of my own. I was never sure if what I wanted to post was enough "us" and not just "me" since it was our family's blog. SO, I'm branching out and starting anew. Welcome to Persimmon Poppy. Why the name? The first 302 names I thought of were taken so I decided to go a little outside the box and title my blog with something I love and possibly describes me in a way.