I added a few new recpies to my eat page today. One of them being Steak Soup (yum!).

I also ordered some photos through iphoto for the first time. I’m excited to see the quality. It’s pretty sad, in my dining room I have a wall of pictures and Honor is only in one of them. Since I got my digital camera over a year ago, I haven’t developed any photos. I’m hoping that they will arrive before Eden’s birthday party on Saturday, but I doubt it.

Speaking of birthday parties, I’m trying to get Eden’s all planned out. This is the cake I’m going to make. I think I’m going to do everything in pink and orange. I really like those colors together lately.

I’m also need to figure out party favors. I don’t want to go totally overboard, I don’t think Eden should expect some HUGE event every year, but I think it’s nice for kids to be able to go home with something. It’s especially hard for the little ones to understand why they don’t get to open presents too. I think I might do big, bright colored suckers as the center of construction paper flowers. And maybe play-doh, what kid doesn’t like play-doh?

Anyway, it’s going to be a busy, busy week. Keep your fingers crossed that I can keep up with it all.

Last weekend we went to Ouray, Colorado by ourselves. Ouray is a tiny mountain town about two hours south of us. It’s claim to fame is it’s hot springs pool and it is also pretty close to Telluride. The hotel where we stayed is unique because it has it’s own hot springs hot tubs. It’s just several big wooden barrels stuck on the hillside, but SO NICE. The low was 19 degrees, but I could have sat under the stars in that hot tub all night. This is the hotel we stayed at on our honeymoon.

We ate dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant where the meals were $25/plate and up. Since we were in a mountain town, I don’t think I saw anyone there who wasn’t wearing jeans. For breakfast, we ate cinnamon rolls at a little bagel shop and then walked through the town (only a few blocks). Nothing is open this time of year so it was a short walk. We headed home and went shopping and to a movie, I think the last movie we saw in the theater was the last Matrix, so that was a treat too.

It it just SO nice to get a little break from our kids. It’s funny, I see Jim everyday, but sometimes I miss him so much. Taking this weekend away helped out a lot. I feel ready to start this week.

**A few scarf swap things, don’t forget to send your postage paid envelope. Also, don’t forget to label each square with your name, those of you who forgot, I’ll take care of it. I’m getting excited to see the finished result. I got the best job in this swap, because I get to see each square.

Finally, I finished this herringbone scarf for a friends birthday. I LOVE manos del uruguay!!!! It’s so beautiful! I think that it’s my new favorite yarn.

I’ve had a few questions about my life lately and I thought that it was an excellent idea to answer them here.

Jim and I started dating when I was 15 and he was 21. When I say the word dating, I use the term losely because we weren’t allowed to date. (You can imagine how well me daing a 21 year old went over with my parents.) We pretty much just saw each other any chance we got. It didn’t take long until we knew that we wanted to marry each other. I don’t think that it’s very often that a 15 year old falls in love with the person she wants to marry, but I have always been more mature for my age. And I think that I just knew what I wanted.

We had a rough go of it really. It was such a fight with my parents. We broke up once because we saw the inevatable coming, but we just couldn’t stay apart. We were forbidden to see each other, which we didn’t obey. Finally, the summer before my senior year, we were finally allowed to be together. I think they realized that Jim was there to stay. Later on that year I was forbidden to see him again. It only lasted a week. I can be rather dramatic and they gave in.

By the time I turned 18 we were just ready to get married. It was important to both of us that we were virgins when we married and, after almost three years of being together, it was getting to the point in our relationship that it was getting VERY hard to resist. Plus, we knew what we wanted and we had fought for it so hard, so why wait?

We got married October 16, 1999. 1 month and 1 day after my 18th birthday. I think it was with my parents blessing. I know that now my mom thinks the world of Jim. I’m not sure about my dad, I know that I’m not living the life he would have chosen for me. But having the kids has softened him up a bit to my life, they are so cute…

EDIT: I also wanted to say that while it has been good for me to marry so young, I wouldn’t necessarily advise it for everyone. There are hard things about starting a marriage when you still have a lot of growing up to do. Jim has been extremely patient with me and I know that if our marriage hadn’t been built on a firm foundation of knowing each other and knowing what we wanted in each other and, in my opinion God’s blessing, we wouldn’t have lasted this long. And while I say I knew what I wanted, I can’t say how lucky I am that I made the right choice. I couldn’t see then what experience has shown me now and… I’m just so lucky that I chose right.

I got pregnant with Eden about two years into our marriage, just a few months after we bought our house. It was one of those things where we weren’t trying but we weren’t prevenitng it either. Jim was in extreme shock when I first took the pregnancy test. He refused to believe me until it was confirmed by a doctor. He soon warmed up to the idea and out popped baby Eden Joy, just two weeks after Jim had been laid off from his job.

He still marvels at how well I handled it. We just had to hit the ground running with our business. It was do or die.

11 months after Eden was born, I got pregnant with Honor. This time our roles were reversed. I was in extreme shock and Jim was super excited. All I have to say is it only takes one time of not being vigillant with our birth control method…. ONE TIME!!! I was pretty miserable during my pregnancy with Honor. I was sick and puking for the majority of it and then it was like the hottest summer EVER. God smiled on me when he was born two weeks early.

There you have it, the last 8 years of my life in a nutshell.

Eden has an imaginary friend. Her name is Lizzy. She’s two like Eden and has pink butterfly earrings. She also has long pink hair.

Isn’t that so funny? I can’t believe how smart she is.

Yesterday I got Eden some My Little Pony Valentines Cards. It’s amazing what entertainment a $1.99 box of cardboard can provide. She spent like an hour looking at the box before we even opened them.

Last night Jim and I were watching the final episodes of Star Trek Voyager on DVD. (Yes, we’re nerds, but you already knew that.) The kids were playing in the kitchen. They were playing so well and quietly that we figured they HAD to be up to no good. This is what we found in the kitchen.

And the vacuum full of the aftermath.

This past week has been a lot better. I wouldn’t say that the kids have been easier to deal with, but I think I’m enjoying them a lot more. Eden has been SO funny. Last night we were at Target and I was letting her look at toys so I could get a better idea of what she wants for her birthday. I’ve been planning for awhile now to get her a Cabbage Patch Kid, so I let her look at which one she would like. She dismissed them and every other toy I showed her, “That’s cool mom, I want a Barbie.” Jim started showing her other toys and she just told him, “Daddy, I need a Barbie.” I explained to her that she needs to wait until she’s bigger to have a Barbie (there’s no reason to jump ahead of things, she’s only going to be 3) and she seemed to be ok with it. It’s amazing what television advertising can do to kids.

Honor has started saying a lot more in the last day. He says Papa, Cheese, Please, Juice and Daisy (the dog). It makes it easier to make some progress with him. I actually feel like I’m finally getting through to him.

She’s going to be 3 in two weeks and this as all the hair she has. I’m starting to worry that she’s got a hair growing disease!

And for your viewing pleasure, Honor’s dinner last night:

I just have to say that I just moved the piano all by myself across the room. I need to say this because my husband is failing to show the correct level of enthusiasm for my feat of strength. It’s a damn heavy piano.

And the sad, SAD things. Our tivo died. We’ve had it for a month. A replacement was supposed to be here today and, darn it UPS, it’s not. If I miss another episode of Alias, I’m going to lose it. This is Alias we’re talking about. Hmmm. Maybe I’ll just stay home from Youth Group so I won’t miss it…..

And the most saddest thing of all. Perhaps the saddest thing in the ENTIRE WORLD…my hair stylist moved to ARIZONA. I’m going to die. If it was closer than ARIZONA, I’d drive to her. But that is like two whole states away. I just can’t believe she would do this to me. If I would have known that the last good hair cut I got was going to be my LAST GOOD HAIRCUT, I would have savored it more. I would have video taped it, so I could enjoy it for all eternity. My poor, poor hair. It’s SO doomed. I need to take pictures of myself now because it’s all down hill from here. I will never look this cute again. How could she do this to me??

Finally, I finished my herringbone scarf. I just have to say that I love size 35US needles.

Notice my hair. *snif, snif*

A few things Honor is starting to do: He now says “uh-oh” and “up”, along with “dog” (and the barking noise for cat or dog), “kitty” and “hot”. And still a lot of “eh, eh” when he wants something. The last few days he’s been dragging a blanket out of his room and laying down on the floor and covering himself up. He lays there for about, oh, half a second, before he tries to roll over and then gets all tangled up in the blanket and freaks out because he things something is trying to keep him from moving. (Speaking of blanket Eden pronounces it “blan-quit” and pillow “piddow”. Cute.)

He’s really interested in climbing up to the table and pouring out the whole entire salt shaker. I can’t count how many times the floor has been swept and still salt is sticking to my bare feet. He also really enjoys the light switch. And now that he has discovered that he could move the dining room chairs around, he has open access to the light switches.

About half the time, he will sit on the floor to eat his snack. I consider this a great accomplishment. Any time this child will hold still, it is AMAZING. Truly amazing.

Eden has taken to pretending that Honor is either a monster or a dinosaur or on the rare occasion, both. She runs from him yelling, “The MONSTER, the MONSTER.” He enjoys it because she allows him to tackle her. Which he does about any time he feels like it. But she’s tough, and I figure for all the mauling she did to him him in his younger days, she deserves it.

And his favorite toys. Umm, yeah, we already went over that, the salt, a blanket, the light switch and of course his old stand by, the toilet. This boy doesn’t play with toys. I’ve been trying to get him to take some quite time each day in his play pen. Only for about 10 or 15 minutes or so, but OH MY LORD, he does not like it. He yells the whole time. It’s almost easier on me to clean up the mess than hear him yell.

He’s also started to make this face. He thrusts out his jaw and sets his teeth. Like, “Go ahead and try me. I won’t do it.” Very cunning, this little punk.

I finished all the squares for the scarf swap this weekend. I see that I got the same idea as Nadia and made cabled squares. Here are a few of mine.

Baby cables:

Basic 6×6 cable:

8×10 cable:

I think cabling is really fun. I’ve been thinking about trying to make this purse, just because cabling is so fun. But the style is totally not me, so I have to figure out who would like the purse or how to alter it to my style.

Margaret and Nicole Cabled Clutch

Sometimes I feel like there is so much that I’d like to make, but so little time.