Bako weather, in Utah?

Okay, maybe I was a bit premature in my wallowing about snow and cold. We had one storm and I was gearing up to expect more of the same from now until spring. But this is a picture of my 3 yr old and her neighbor friend today in our yard, just about one week before Dec. It's 62 degrees outside. Of course they like to wear their swimsuits inside even when there is snow out. I am loving this weather, but also feeling a bit guilty when I know people are praying for snow and rain for watering crops and drinking.

I truly am a "beaner"

Is it possible that mexicans are genitically inclined to desire beans in their diet? I believe it is so. Here is my proof. Recently Jake and I were on a diet that we followed so closely we only ate what was listed on the program at the exact times suggested, even the recipes were provided. When we stopped the diet, a month and a half later, we allowed ourselves to indulge in the foods we had been missing. One of the first things I wanted was a bean burrito. I want a bean burrito right now and it's 9am.

My grandmother (the mexican one) served refried beans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with homemade tortillas and a side dish she called sopita, which I think means little soup. But it was actually a pasta dish. It was much like mexican rice but it was made with fideo noodles. One meal was only different from the other with the main dish. Beans and tortillas with eggs for breakfast and beans and tortillas with enchiladas, tacos, or tamales for dinner.

For her homemade tamales, beans, and tortillas I think I would drive to Wasco, CA right now. But she has left this world many years ago and taken her recipes with her. This post is making me hungry. I think Christmas is making me want her tamales. For those of you gringos who don't know: tamales and Christmas go together for mexicans. I don't know why because I am only half. I think you have to be a full blood to get access to details such as those. My dad told me a joke about it once, that it was so that mexicans had something to unwrap. He loves mexican jokes, as long as he is the one telling them.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I have just recently discovered something about all of the big holidays that are clumped together from Oct 31st through Jan 1st. They were created as a diversion to get people through the winter. Being from Bakersfield, CA where there is no winter, I always just thought they were for fun. But now that I live in a place that half the year seems to me like an uninhabitable wasteland, I realize I need Christmas Carols to convince me that it is actually a winter wonderland. I had never seen real snow when I first came to Utah and 15 years later, I still haven't warmed up to the idea. During my college years I discovered snowboarding to divert my attention from the discomforts of the local weather. Now that I have small children, I don't get to the slopes much but I celebrate the holidays more than ever before. So, as much as some people are peeved by celebrating Christmas too early, I'm startng now. I very much enjoyed creating a Christmas Carol playlist. I searched through all my favorites, listening to different versions. I chose about 25 songs (I couldn't narrow it down to less). And while I was at that website only 36 viruses loades onto my computer. I have a real love/hate for the playlist website.

In Their Own Words

When I first started this blog I decided it was because I don't keep a journal; so, I need to use it to jot down things I want to remember. Like all kids, mine have come up with their own interesting words for things as they've learned to speak and here are just a few.

Lydia: for grandma and granpa she would say maga and paga. All animals were named after the sounds they make (i.e. a cat was a meow and a cow was a moo.) Other than that she was always very articulate. As a matter a fact before I weaned her at a yr old, when she was hungry she would let me know by saying "Nurse?" I knew it was time for the weaning. Although she was always average size, at 2 yrs everyone thought she was incredibly small because she spoke like she was much older. I even remember one person asking me if she was 5. Poor Caleb was more normal but I worried that he was slow because of the comparison.

Caleb: for grandma and grampa he would say damna and ompa. Lydia was "yaya" and yellow was "lello." It took us awhile to discover that he needed tubes in his ears and he wasn't hearing well, because he mispronounced for a long time calling himself taleb and most words starting with "D". He loves corndogs, but he always called them a hot dog with a stick on it. Of course the "st" was replaced with "d" and people always looked at me with a concerned look on their face when he asked for one. He also did a very interesting thing with "R's" that reminded me of scooby-doo: yogurt was rogrit and bananas were branas. The cutest thing (and he still does this) is for hungry and thirsty he says he's eaty and drinky. Today he said, "I want the glass really full because I'm really drinky" and I thought I need to write this down.

Lily: She often shortened things to the last syllable. Lydia was "eeya" and Caleb was "dub." Which is so cute that I often called him dub. She still replaces "L" with "Y" and calls her sisters "yiya and yucy." And if you ask her to say her name she'll say, "I'm not yiyee, my name is pink princess." Lily would replace most all of her consonants with "D." So only I could decode her language. People would just look at her and then to me to translate and I would be surprised that I knew.

Lucy: is 1 yr old in a couple of weeks. She doesn't really say anything yet. She is my first child to speak like Trixie from the story Knuffle Bunny. She actually sounds like she's saying "aggle flaggle klabble." She talks in fulls sentences and paragraphs like she is saying actual words and we all should understand.

Back In The Saddle

I couldn't let everyone believe that we dropped out of P90X for good. We started up last monday and have been going strong all week. For any of you who were considering giving it a try. I recommend the program highly. It was hard to restart once stopping, but so worth it. Monday I felt twenty times healthier. It gives me a rush to get up early and work out hard. After a three week pause, I was completely out of shape again. Today I can barely lift my arms or sit down. I also lost all the fexibility I had gained, which wasn't much for a normal person, but I can't usually touch my toes.

We made some adjustments to make the program fit more comfortably into our lives, mostly with the diet. Rather than following the recipes completely we decided to just follow the food group allowances. We use some of the recipes still. Also, we started over from the beginning for the excercise, but for the diet we've blended the fat shredder witht he energy boost plans.

It is important to realize that this is not a weight loss program. The company is called "beachbody" and the main goal is tighter everything. The ab ripper, yoga, jump training, and bum and thigh programs are wonderful and the most intense I've ever done. When I'm focusing on arms, shoulders, and back, the program seems like it's more for guys but I have to remind myself that it is that kind of thinking that makes it commonplace for women to have relief society arms (AKA: saggy, flapping triceps).

Of costumes and candy

With all the thinking that I gave to a costume for Jake and I this year, I went to my sister-and-law's at 10am the morning of and just barrowed a few things to make quick costumes. Costuming four children took all of my halloween strength. Assembling costumes is a lot more work than just buying them premade. Next year I vow to go to the next step and actually pull out the sewing machine to make good costumes.

We had a lot of fun and the day went very fast. The morning was taken up with last minute costume finding, getting everyone dressed and getting Lucy a nap. The afternoon zipped by with getting Caleb to preschool and helping out at Lydia's school halloween party. In the evening we attended the ward halloween party (thank goodness dinner was provided because there was no time to cook anything), the ward trunk or treat and a little neighborhood trick or treating. It was a long day of costumes and candy and as much as I like the holiday, I was quite relieved when it was over.

We have an interesting "day after halloween" tradition. It's called "go candy wild." Other than keeping wrappers picked up, we have absolutely no rules. Candy for breakfast and candy all day long. It makes our children sick and grumpy, but it cures them of their love for candy. And it makes the post halloween candy supply go very fast. They get a little wreckless and they start tasting them and throwing them away after a couple of second. They share with neighbor friends. They do trades in which they really do not get a very good deal. All of this sounds pretty bad, but it ends in my favorite result, which is to have no more candy. We used to ration it out in a healthy and responsible way but it lasted forever that way. This way it is all gone in a couple of days. Yeah.