When we arrived home from our Utah sojourn we found weeds, dust, an overgrown garden, and two dead birds in the pool. Yuck. We are working on a return to normalcy. Normal for us is a never-ending cycle of cooking, cleaning, playing, and projects. I have been busy trying to think of 101 ways to cook zucchini because our garden has been very fruitful in the zucchini department. Yesterday I made zucchini sweet potato bread and salmon zucchini cakes. Both were very delicious ways to utilize our zucchini stores.
We have have also started the frustrating, yet comical journey called potty training. Max LOVES fruit snacks, so we use those as leverage. Sometimes we forget that he is smarter than we are. He does a tiny little tinkle in the toilet, and we clap and shout and bring out the fruit snacks. Then 20 minutes later (when the fruit snacks are gone) he runs to the toilet to go a little bit more...to get more fruit snacks. Basically, he is squeezing out a few drops anytime he wants fruit snacks. If he doesn't want fruits snacks, he goes in his diaper. Sometimes he even tries to fake us out. He will run to the bathroom, sit on his toilet, make dramatic pushing faces, and say "psssssss". He promptly proceeds to dump his (empty) little toilet bowl in the big toilet with his 'this-is-serious-business face'. He puts the toilet bowl back and (with a huge smile) says "FRUIT SNACKS!?"
Poor little Ian had a rough time up north because it became increasingly difficult to stick to my no dairy diet with a gazillion people dropping off dairy-laden treats and snacks every 10 minutes. I was very good until the funeral. I took one look at the funeral potatoes at the luncheon and scooped half of the pan onto my plate. Eating funeral potatoes at a funeral is a rite of passage. I couldn't not do it. There is some magical ingredient in those things that dispels sadness, I'm sure of it. Anyway, once I'd cheated there was no point in avoiding the rest of the mormon soul food, so I loaded up. And, after that...I was up all night. Every night. Ian did his best to remind me that milk does NOT do his body good. Poor guy.
I know that sometimes this blog is a sounding board for my rants and frustrations. What I sometimes forget to post about is this: I LOVE BEING A MOTHER. Truth is, I have never been happier in my entire life.
When people you love have cancer, you feel really helpless. J-P has always been an avid supporter of the livestrong foundation, but since finding out the heart wrenching news that his Dad has cancer, he has upped his donations. We have spent a small fortune supporting cancer organizations, blogs, etc. It's the least we can do when we don't know what else to do. 
J-P only reads one blog: fatcyclist.com. He feels a connection to the blogger because they share a love of cycling and a determination to support cancer organizations and cancer research. Today we found out that the fat cyclist's wife's cancer has become terminal, and it has been a sad day at our house. It's funny how we become connected to and emotionally invested in the people whose blogs we read. We have never met him, but we feel like we are old friends because we know everything about him.
Cancer is taking it's toll on our family, extended family, our friends, and the families of our friends. We wish we knew how to stop it. Our hearts go out to all those who have suffered the repercussions of this horrible disease. I have been trying to get to the bottom of the epidemic by reading as much as I can about it. Cancer.gov has great info. 
I have been making a concerted effort to make sure that I am feeding my family healthy food. This book has almost convinced me to become a vegan. Almost. It has some really interesting research about the relationship between diet and chronic disease. A must read, if you ask me. For lunch today (and most days) we had brown rice, black beans (a la my special recipe), avocado, and home-made salsa. No one said eating healthy has to taste bad.
We celebrated Rachel's 22nd birthday with a rice crispie cake and a home-made pennant banner. It was great fun to catch up with Rachel and Sarah. Max loves getting attention from his aunts.
Max's new obsession is the TV show Yo Gabba Gabba. He goes crazy dancing around the house and yelling "TD(tv)! Yo Gabga!" We have all the episodes taped. Here he is watching it with dad and baby Ian.
We made our final decision about school today. J-P has been accepted to the Duke Cross Continent MBA program and gave them a verbal commitment today. The paperwork is being over-nighted, and we send off our deposit tomorrow. Yikes. We will soon live in the poor house as Duke is about 50 times more expensive than ASU. We are crossing our fingers that in the long run it will be a better investment. Congratulations J-P!!!
p.s. After J-P called Duke and explained the situation with his dad they were nice enough to do a last minute switch of his application from the full-time program to the cross continent program free of charge. We will be staying in AZ, but J-P will be traveling to NC once a quarter for a week long residence. He will also be doing international residences in China, India, and Belgium. I am not looking forward to all the travel, but at least we don't have to try and sell our house. The market is abysmal in AZ right now.
When we arrived home from our Utah sojourn we found weeds, dust, an overgrown garden, and two dead birds in the pool. Yuck. We are working on a return to normalcy. Normal for us is a never-ending cycle of cooking, cleaning, playing, and projects. I have been busy trying to think of 101 ways to cook zucchini because our garden has been very fruitful in the zucchini department. Yesterday I made zucchini sweet potato bread and salmon zucchini cakes. Both were very delicious ways to utilize our zucchini stores. 
We have have also started the frustrating, yet comical journey called potty training. Max LOVES fruit snacks, so we use those as leverage. Sometimes we forget that he is smarter than we are. He does a tiny little tinkle in the toilet, and we clap and shout and bring out the fruit snacks. Then 20 minutes later (when the fruit snacks are gone) he runs to the toilet to go a little bit more...to get more fruit snacks. Basically, he is squeezing out a few drops anytime he wants fruit snacks. If he doesn't want fruits snacks, he goes in his diaper. Sometimes he even tries to fake us out. He will run to the bathroom, sit on his toilet, make dramatic pushing faces, and say "psssssss". He promptly proceeds to dump his (empty) little toilet bowl in the big toilet with his 'this-is-serious-business face'. He puts the toilet bowl back and (with a huge smile) says "FRUIT SNACKS!?" 
Poor little Ian had a rough time up north because it became increasingly difficult to stick to my no dairy diet with a gazillion people dropping off dairy-laden treats and snacks every 10 minutes. I was very good until the funeral. I took one look at the funeral potatoes at the luncheon and scooped half of the pan onto my plate. Eating funeral potatoes at a funeral is a rite of passage. I couldn't not do it. There is some magical ingredient in those things that dispels sadness, I'm sure of it. Anyway, once I'd cheated there was no point in avoiding the rest of the mormon soul food, so I loaded up. And, after that...I was up all night. Every night. Ian did his best to remind me that milk does NOT do his body good. Poor guy.
