Happy Birthday to Me

This month I celebrated my 34th birthday. I cannot believe I'm 34. I don't feel 34. I don't look 34? (Don't answer that.)
Anywho, my birthday came and I have so much to be thankful for. The Good Lord has blessed me with a wonderful, witty, sometimes not-so-charming husband who cooks, repairs toilets, washers, and super hero heads (but fumbles through diaper changes after almost 4 years of practice! But he DOES change them), 2 beautifully amazingly perfect children with impressive vocabularies, excellent appetites, and who are 100% Mamma's Babies, a brother who is my friend, my family, there's not really a word to describe what he means to me and to us, a mom and a dad who would drop anything and everything to do what we need, a successful career, a humble home, 2 dogs, a high maintenance cat,an abundance of fun and reliable friends, and a partridge in a...
One of my thoughts was, "Wow, I'm lucky." But not really. Luck has nothing to do with it. The Good Lord has blessed me, yes, and I've made lots of decision, put up a lot of elbow grease and hard work to get where I am. I'm so proud of what I have and of who I have around me. Happy Birthday!

My favorites

Going Green

You can't get crazy about growing your own food without changing everything else. Here's a start at going green inside.

Food!

As most of my friends & family know, I love food! I love to cook, bake, shop, prepare, and eat good food with those I love. Our garden is a might bigger than last year's (see awesome photos on down) and we have an awesome compost bin. Maddie and Jason know all of our fruit and vegetable waste heads outside to the composter. I love that M & J have helped with the garden and are actively involved in tending to it. We've recently joined a CSA (consumer shared agriculture) where any day now, we'll start picking up a weekly share of food grown from a family farm, we'll soon be purchasing our eggs from a farm as well. If I could find raw milk at a fair price, we'd even switch over.

My lastest concern/fixation is on genetically engineered crops. Watching a documentary I learned that corporations, specifically, Monsanto, can now own by having a patent on seeds. This patent allows them to control their seeds as well as their prodigies (offspring or other seeds and crops) regardless of there they spread or how they get there. That allows these corportations to essentially own almost all crops as seeds spread so easily. These companies are changing the seeds at the cellular level by adding ecoli DNA to make them resistant to their particular brand of herbicides and pesticides. They are even experimenting with altering seeds so that they must be sprayed with their own brand of starting agent in order to begin germination! That's terrifying when you think that a large corporation is controlling our food supply. Because these corporations have so many of their employees in Washington and on the payrolls at the FDA, there is no regulation on tinkering with the genetic make-up of seeds, they are patenting all kinds of seeds, and there is currently no law requiring food that contains genetically engineered crops to be labeled!

UGH! I think I'm going to convince Trav to take our backyard garden & compost pile and head to a deserted island, I'll send yall pictures and postcards.

Happy Trails,

Dishes are Done!

Tonight Maddie & Jason "helped" me do the dishes. It took us 40 minutes. I also got to mop the floor tonight.

I have free time!

Musical Beds - Maddie napping in Jason's bed

Spock & Jason napping in Maddie's room

Maddie & Jason playing together

Happy 2nd Birthday Maddie!

Jason was totally going crazy over Maddie's strawberry cake!

Mommy, M, & J

Got Milk?

Many milk lovers despise skim milk. Called "thin", "watery", "wannabe", it's really the outcast of the dairy world, but after a 12 year plan to wean myself from whole milk to skim, the day has finally come that I reach past the whole, past the 1%, and grab for the skim, the dimly hued liquid so unpopular in the grocer's case.
I started out in '76 on whole milk and didn't really realize the cons of whole until the mid 80's, however, it wasn't until 97 that I made a conscious decision to move, slowly but surely, aware from the silent white threat to a healthier option.
It wasn't an easy transition, not long after my decision, I switched to 2% and suffered nightsweats and weightloss (who knew 4 glassess of whole milk a day would keep the pounds on); after 3 1/2 years on 2%, I figured it as time to move to phase 2 of my transition. I looked for 1 3/4 %, but 1 1/2 % was as close as I could get. On 1 1/2 percent for 6 months, I was feeling good and ready for a change, I heroically moved to 1%. Then a setback, after moving to florida to work for Eckerd Wilderness camps, I learned 2% was all they served. I was devistated-and off the wagon.
Well, here we are 7 years later, and countless gallons later, I made it, I'm on skim milk. It was a long hard journey, but I'm proud I made it!

Bath Time?

Today I took a bath with 6 army men and a blue avatar creature, considering they were 6 inches tall and comprised mostly of plastic, it really wasn't as relaxing as you'd think.

I heart Jason Olson

Reason #4,529 I love Jason Olson

Tonight as I'm tucking Jason into bed (this is not an exaggeration, summary, or paraphrase, names have been changed to protect the innocent)
"Mommy, I love you more than...chocolate brownies...with BACON on top!"

: )

Cheetle?

I detest cheetos. I'm not sure from which plant the cheeto comes from, but whatever plant it is, I'm pretty sure I don't like it either, in fact, I know I don't like it. I have a list of 58 reasons not to like cheetos (sorry Frito-Lay).

There are many highly entertaining parts to Toy Story 2, but the most hilarious scence, and the one that epitomizes exactly why I'm so opposed to cheetos. Big Al, the morbidly obese toy store owner (proving beyone doubt that eating cheetos contributes to weight gain, laziness, and overall disgustingness), falls asleep watching television while snacking on said snack. He has cheetle (the orange, powdery residue left on your fingers after eating cheetos, this, by the way, is a real word) (BTW, "cheetle" is reason #2 I can't stand said snack) Anywho, back to the cheetle on his fingers, around his mouth, it's everywhere, Woody & the horse are trying to sneak out and the cheetos are everywhere (reason number 17 I detest them, they scatter & travel easily) as they're trying to escape, they step on one, and it crumbles everywhere. cheetos grind easily into all types of materials.

moral of the story: cheetos are bad, (just ask Big Al & Woody)

I really have the best brother ever! Every year we see Robert Earl Keen at Bass Hall in Ft. Worth (with awesome seats) thanks to my bro. We had supper & a terrific time with REK. Thanks ROCKER!

the most wonderful time of the year

Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year. I'm so sorry to see it go, as we were taking down the Christmas tree, all the decorations, putting away the Christmas cds, I'm already looking forward to next Christmas. Here's a little of what the Olsons did this season:
We cut down our own tree...
M & J revealed their secret identities as super heros
Oh, & Jason grew out his mustache

xoxo

I HEART the awesome 3's

Jason: Mommy, can I wipe this booger on you?
Me: No!
Jason: SPOCK!
Me: JASON!
Jason: MADDIE!
Me: JASON, do not wipe a booger on your sister!

Olson Kids Free Time

I wanted to show you all what the M & J like to do during their free time...Maddie & Jason both love Nutella! They especially like it on waffles, toast, or on a spoon.

Maddie enjoys spending her free time organizing & doing office work. (She does not get this from Travis.)
Jason really values relaxation time.

Lewisville Garden Club Newcomer Award

So I was all set to accept Lewisville Garden Club's Newcomer Award for best new gardener who produced an awesome harvest 1st year gardening, until a couple of things happened. A) I was never nominated/awarded, b) Spock & Kirk destroyed cantaloupe batches 1 & 2, c) I spaced the squash too close to the "snugar snap peas" d) the bugs at the brocolli and e) Jason picked the awesome cherry tomatoes and fed them to Spock and Kirk.

Anywho, to all you naysayers out there, (and you know who you are, naysayers you!) I still have 3 corn stalks coming in, bell peppers out the @#$&, 1 producing tomato plant and 5 cantaloupe! I may not be a top seller at the farmer's market this year, but next year, watch out!

Do you know that moment, after you've flushed the toilet, when the water is rising, not draining, that moment of panic when you've realized, "it's gonna overflow!" "what should I do? Should I make a break for it and get some towels, what towels? Which towels would I be ok throwing away!? What about the rugs?! should I move the rugs?! No, plunge, now's the time to plunge!" Well, I just had that moment, not a good feeling.

"Jason, are you being mean to Spock?"
"No...I'm being to mean Maddie!"

Brownies anyone?

Brownies anyone?

Brownies anyone?

So I love, love, love, to bake, cook, and/or create food. Before I lived here at this circus tent I sometimes refer to as my "home" with the circus people that stay here that I sometimes refer to as my "family" I did a lot of creative cooking and baking. As a matter of fact, I've invented many recipes, but that's for another entry. Tonight I decided Jason and I would make brownies together, mistake number 1. I saw a really easy recipe on Everyday foods http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/ for a brownie with cream cheese swirl that looked terrific (aside and an entry for another day as well, the recipe is fouled up, don't try it, you have to add the flour/cocoa mixture where is says "flour") anywho, I digress. Jason & I were really excited about our culinary venture that was about to begin. Trav had to mow, so it was just me, Jason, Maddie, Spock & Kirk, mistake #2. Chair comes into the kitchen, up goes M & J, Spock and Kirk sprawled out on the floor, chaos, Julia Childs herself couldn't have concocted something edible under these conditions. After several near altercations between M & J regarding whose stirring the above mentioned flour/cocoa mixture Maddie goes on my hip, mistake #, I can't remember. Jason pours in the flour/cocoa mixture, "very gently" I preface, half goes on the floor, "we're such good helpers!" Jason responds, (I'm pretty sure he could see the grief oozing from every pore). After Maddie sneezed in the batter, I tried to remember if I even washed my hands after turning the compost and fishing superheros out of the pool. Oops, mistake number 593. Finishing up the cream cheese mixture Jason disappears only to reemerge minutes later. "Check out this poopy, Mommy!" So we abandon the venture to take care of the aforementioned poopy. After 55 minutes, the brownies finally go into the oven. I can't wait to taste them.

Ultimus Prime, Deceptacon, & Bumble Bee?

Jason is now referring to himself as "Ultimus Prime," Maddie is "Deceptacon" and I have become "Bumble Bee." (Note, no need to dial CPS, he's only seen a few episodes of the cartoon from when we were kids), anywho, tonight it was "Jason, can you grab Maddie's shoes." "No, Mommy, I'm not Jason, I'm Ultimus Prime, she's Deceptacon." "Ok, Ultimus Prime, can you grab Deceptacon's shoes?" "Sure, Bumble Bee, we're such great helpers!" I love the 3's!

Happy 3rd Birthday Jason!

Birthday Thanks for Grama Candy & Grampa Gordy

*Caution: Following is extremely uninteresting, content only grandparents could love/appreciate.

Maddie & Spock

My Mom's a Reading Teacher...

Spock & Kirk

Here are the newest members of our family, Kirk & Spock, we adopted them last week from the Tulsa Lab Rescue, (they were already named, no, I am no a die hard Trekkey). M & J are just crazy about them.

Mommy, take a smile...

"Stop this seahorse play!" -Squidward Q. Tentacles (jason's first encounter with sharpies)

awesome pool time with super jason, spidermaddy, and spider man (plus, my awesome garden in the back with beginning compost pile)

"mommy, can you take my smile?"

Travis & Jason on merry go round at zoo, pre-meltdown (jason, not trav)