Inspiration

I love feeling inspired. I love finding answers to my questions. I love the calm, yet powerful feeling that assures me the answers are right. You know, the opposite of the pit in your stomach feeling. I always get the pit feeling when something isn't right. Always. Once I got the pit feeling so bad I actually threw up. Although that experience wasn't pleasant, it helped me avoid what would have been a very bad marriage.

Lately I have been fretting about food. I have read SO many books on food and nutrition. Too many to count. So many of them have contradictory information. To eat meat or not? To eat dairy products or not? To cook your food or eat it raw? What foods cause cancer? I opened the ensign magazine that just came in the mail and found my answer in the form of this article. Then I did a google search and found this.

If you look close you can see ian's two new teeth

Over the past couple of years I have thought a lot about immunizations. After lots of conversations and research I decided that the benefits of immunizing my children outweighed the risks. I was about 95% for immunizations, 5% scared to death that they would impair max and ian's sparkling personalities. Yesterday I stumbled upon this information on providentliving.org. I was immediately overwhelmed with the feeling that I had made the right decision. I won't have anymore shot anxiety at our next appointment because I know I've made the right decision. The right decision for me anyway.

Happy Birthday, Phil!

Just wanted to wish you happy birthday! We held a party for you and wish you could have enjoyed it with us. Max says he would have shared some "cake" with you.

Hope your B-day was just as fun.

J-P

lavender intoxication

There was an accident at our house last night. A bad one. Our trader joe's laundry soap jumped off of its perch on the washer and exploded onto the floor. We both ran from room to room, checking on the kids and trying to identify the source of the noise. When we got to the laundry room we saw 64 loads worth of soap oozing towards us. Without thinking we threw down a bunch of towels to stop it in its path. Bad move. We were not thinking about the repercussions of putting 64 loads worth of soap in one load of laundry. As a precaution I started to rinse out the towels in the bathtub first. Bad move again. Within seconds we had a gazillion million bubbles all the way up to the ceiling. They kept multiplying until I was drowning in bubbles and gasping for air.*

Did I mention the soap was filled with lavender essential oil? Did I mention that I almost died from inhaling 64 loads worth of essential oil?

After much coughing, gasping, light-headedness, and shortness of breath, I came out to warn J-P of the seriousness of the situation. "Um, yeah, so there is a pretty good chance I'm gonna pass out so if you hear me fall you should probably come check on me. I could also die from lavender intoxication." He was expressionless and absorbed in the computer. He didn't even look up from the email he was writing. After a long pause he said "ok." I stomped back to the danger zone, pushed aside the thick bubbles that had engulfed the bathroom, and finished the job.
On a positive note, yesterday I finally had success with sweet potato french fries. I have been making them for years, but can never get them quite right. Feeling inspired by the orient, I mixed together some turmeric, paprika, cinnamon, cumin, pepper, a pinch of cayenne, some sugar and sprinkled it on. Fifteen minutes and 425 degrees later-- out came sweet potato perfection.

*Disclaimer: Last summer J-P told me that I should add "based on a true story" to our blog header because of my tendency to exaggerate the details. I feel like I only tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but I suppose that once in a while he might be right. I think the Spanish word verosimil (close to the truth) would be an accurate description of my depictions.

Weekend in L.A.

We made a quick trip to Los Angeles for my friend Jessica's wedding. It was a beautiful day. It was also a HOT day and the used-to-zero-percent-humidity Scoville family was dripping in perspiration the whole day. It was fun to drive by the first apartment we lived in and reminisce about weekly trips to the beach, big city adventures, and unrestricted sushi eating.
After the wedding we headed to the beach to seek some relief from the scorch. BAD IDEA. All of SoCal was at the beach with news media in tow to document the widespread pilgrimage to the supposedly cooler coastline. We all got heatstroke. Ok, maybe not.
After the beach we headed to the reception at the Los Angeles Police Academy rock garden. BEAUTIFUL. I was kicking myself for forgetting the camera in the car. I love weddings. I love them more without cranky children; nonetheless, we had a great time.
You can check out more pictures from our trip on FLICKR

weekend festivities

Our fun weekend festivities included a trip to Ikea to pick out Max's birthday present--a table and chairs--and a family father's day dinner. Max loves Ikea. We had to separate him (by force) from the children's section and had to deal with the kicking and screaming that ensued upon his removal. Rachel and Sarah came over to help us celebrate father's day, not a super fun day when you recently lost yours. We had T-bone steaks, roasted red potatoes, green salad, fruit salad (the mangoes were divine) and homemade rolls. For dessert I made pizzelles to go with our mango gelato. I have never made them before, despite an impulse purchase of a pizzelle iron a few years back. They turned out pretty good.
In other news, Max is currently obsessed with trucks and horses. He can name all of the different trucks. He can also make horse noises and gallop around the house much better than I can. I love that he is entering into the stage of creative play. J-P took him to a demolition derby when we were in Utah and now most of his play is revolved around crashing his matchbox trucks into each other. Luckily for me, Max never gets bored with his trucks. He races them, feeds them, talks to them, and crashes them. They are inseparable.
Here is a typical conversation: "Come big rig...come dump truck...AAAAHHHGGG (as he is violently crashing them together)!!!" I could never figure out why my little brother Tyler always wanted to be a semi-truck driver when he grew up. Now I get it. Little boys love trucks. I only wish I would have caught on sooner.

Feliz Cumpleanos

Max turned two today. This was our first coversation...

Me: Max, today is your birthday!
Max: (smiling) yep
Me: It's your special day and we can do anything you want. What should we do?
Max: Play game.
Me: What game should we play?
Max: A ROVIES!!!!!!! (this is what he calls ring-around-the-rosies)

We played lots and lots of ring-around-the-rosies, Max's favorite game in the whole world.

birthdays and blood tests

Ian turns seven months tomorrow and Max turns two on Friday. It's crazy to think that two years ago I didn't have any children. I can't imagine life without them. I forgot to post Ian's six month stats because we left right after his appointment to go up to Utah. Here they are:

height: 27 3/4 inches
weight: 17 lbs 11 oz
head: 17 inches

I'm pretty sure he has gained some weight since then because I have been stricter with my diet and he isn't throwing up as much. He sits really well and rolls all over the place. He scoots backwards and rocks on his hands and knees, but Max did that for two months before he started crawling so I'm not expecting it anytime soon. We'll see. He loves people and cries if they are out of his sight. He loves to play with Max. Max had a massive amount of blood work done yesterday. They tested him for a plethora of new allergies and re-checked his growth hormone levels, etc. He was a good sport and didn't cry that much. He put up a major protest when the nurse tried to put gauze on. Finally the nurse pulled out a sharpie and drew a smiley face on it and he loved it. He didn't want to take it off and pulled his pajama sleeve up so he could see it while he was going to bed. Haircuts and blood test are the only time Max gets suckers because I am the sugar-nazi mom. Hopefully one day he will thank me.

fruit leather mania

...So all of this business with the economy, gas prices, house foreclosures, airline drama, etc. has increased my already existent paranoia. I think way too much. About everything. Lately I've been thinking about food storage. We have some, but not enough. I want more. Lots more. I've also been thinking about budgeting. How can I cut back on our food budget and still maintain a highly nutritious diet, all whilst adding to our food storage? The answer came to me one day like a coconut falling from a tree: a food dehydrator. Here is the transcript from a conversation we had a few days ago.

me(out of nowhere): I'm buying a food dehydrator. It's non-negotiable and not open for discussion.
j-p(puzzled): Um...ok?
me: Good. I'm glad we're on the same page. Let's go get it right now. I dug one of those Bed Bath and Beyond 20% coupons out of the trash and headed to make my purchase. The epiphany, conversation, and purchase all took place in a 3 hour time frame last Friday. Since then, I have been making fruit leather and drying fruit. My first batch of fruit leather was blueberry/marionberry/raspberry/apple. Today I whipped up a batch of strawberry/peach/apricot and cantaloupe/mango/apple. Max is in fruit leather heaven.

creative storage

Max is (and always has been) a hoarder. He loves to put things inside of other things. Example #1: his garbage can fetish. While other kids are busy playing at he park, he is very busy loading all the rocks, leaves, sticks, and other non-garbage items into the garbage can. He also loves bowls. He loves to put food in bowls and went through a very long phase where he would not eat anything unless it was in a bowl. He loves pockets, purses, dump trucks, bags, bins, drawers, and anything else he can fill up. Since the day he learned how to crawl, he has spent his days collecting random items from around the house and storing them in strategic spots. He goes on a daily shopping trip around the house and carefully decides which items will make it to his special hiding place.
Today, for the first time ever, the stash was located on his person. I was taking out some matching hounds tooth vests I got on clearance to ask J-P if I should take them back, when Max immediately snatched it out of my hand and demanded to put it on. He has refused to take it off all day, despite the lovely (no sarcasm) 80 degree temperature of our house. To his delight, he discovered he could store his stash in his new favorite top. Eventually, the stash got too heavy and fell out. He quelled our laughs with his world-is-ending screams and J-P immediately taught him how to tuck in the vest for a better hold. He wiped his tears and quickly loaded his stash back into his new vest. When he was finished, I said "Max, your stomach is huge...are you Santa Claus?" He thought carefully and then replied "yep."

Stuck!

Ian is a good baby. The one not-so-good thing is his daily ritual of getting stuck in the crib. Yesterday J-P almost had to break the crib to get him out. His legs are black and blue today, but that didn't stop him from getting stuck again. I guess I'll have to give in and get a bumper.