I WANT to share pictures...

Really, I do...

I mean, I took about a bazillion.
And then took a few more.

And that was just of Iguasu Falls...

And each time I took my eyes off the incredibly breathtaking scenery
To glance at the technologically engineered rendition of the view,
I found myself extremely disappointed and frustrated.

So I finally stopped trying to capture it on film.
And tried to stare as long as possible
To just capture it in my mind.

And hopefully never forget how majestic it was
And how incredibly small I felt
And how in awe I became.
And couldn't even put it into words...
I would just have to look at it,
and then look at my husband
and pinch myself to remember that I was actually fully awake and alert
And standing in this part of heaven on earth
Next to my best friend in the world
And life was about as complete as it could be
(minus our 5 kids who happened to be a continent away at the moment...
and who would have probably caused me many heart attacks
as they wandered a little too far out on the many 'not quite up to U.S. codes' board walks
...that went literally out to the very drop off point at the top of the waterfall
Or in the boat at the bottom,
where the driver drove right under the waterfall, so I was sitting literally at the exact base of the waterfall...
getting my own 'little' Iguasu waterfall shower)

Yep.
Breathtaking
Amazing
Indescribably
Uncapturable
Inspirational

Iguasu Falls.
Worth every minute of 5 different plane rides to behold.

My Grass Half Full Guy...

One day, when we were walking into the Y
In the frigid cold
While the rest of the world was blossoming
And I was cursing our tundra land still well covered in snow
Ben ran ahead and turned around with a huge smile on his face,
and exclaimed, "Mom, Look!  Grass!!"
and he was standing in the one strip in all of minnesota that actually had unearthed some real ground.

and that pretty much describes my boy - 

always looking on the bright side of life

very quiet, but very positive.

I know that he was sent to earth specifically for me...

to help me see the bright side of life

when I tend to get down in the dumps

Sure do love this guy!

 (no, this is not trick photography,  

and no, the girl next to him is not a midget... she is actually a 'normal' sized kindergartner... 

he really is that tall.)

And to celebrate his recent birthday, he got not one... 

but TWO ultra cool-super-fancy super hero cakes.

(this is a light saber, for those of you who are still trying to determine what the second one is.
He requested a star wars cake...
and I thought - darth vador... not happening
storm trooper... not happening
light saber - straight lines... I can do that :).

Happy Birthday Ben!!

(now please stop growing up so fast!!)

I DO so like green eggs and ham...

... I DO, I like them Sam I Am...

Especially on Saint Patrick's Day!!

As appropriate for the holiday, Ben picked one of his favorite books, Green Eggs and Ham...
and following gramma missions tradition for as long as I can remember,
The kids came to a breakfast of, yes, green eggs and ham :)

... and this is about the only way you will see me drink a green smoothy...

which is really our latest passion (dream cycle smoothy)...

with a bit of green food coloring :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What's wrong with this picture??!

In an effort to usher in spring, I broke out the eater decor... and it just seems wrong that there is a fire in the fireplace with all of the fun spring colors surrounding it.

To borrow a phrase from one of my friends here:  I feel like I'm becoming the weather... bitter and cold!!

Please, Please... send in the heat lamps... I'm afraid I've forgotten what the color green looks like!

Baby Steps...

I was raised on the teachings of "food storage for a year"

Seriously, I think I heard it from the womb... 

Not a general conference goes by 

that we don't hear something about food storage.

And I have found plenty of excuses in my adult life 

to not exactly heed the calling:

... I was a poor collage student

(besides, didn't BYU have some deep reserve for students stashed away in some mountain vault anyway??  I felt pretty secure there..."

... then we were poor medical students

and planning on moving soon anyway

who wants to move thousands of pounds of wheat every few years??!

... then we were poor residents

and were struggling to eat day to day, let alone plan out a year in advance

(in my defense, I did try to store up some here and there...

even tried to get a big chunk once with some extra income,

to which hubby laid claim to some new dermatology books...

... to which I replied that I wouldn't hesitate to burn as fuel for food in 'the famine')

... then we made it to 'consultant status'

... and student loans started knocking on the doors.

... well, you get the idea - 

But it has always been there

deep in the recesses of my brain

nagging, tugging, warning:

GET THE FOOD STORAGE

As I plugged in our numbers to the 'super duper food storage calculator' 

on our church's web site,

I was a wee bit overwhelmed to see that we would need

2100 pounds of wheat for our family

2100 pounds??!  Isn't that over a TON??!

and that was just in the wheat category.

... there are many more categories.

enter: overwhelmed theme music...

This year, I finally decided I needed to do something...

 so I decided I would go for the blizzard storage...

as in:  when a blizzard is forecast I don't want to have to leave my house for anything

(since our last one was such a fiasco... see earlier blog post...)

So I got all excited,

got couponing,

got a bunch of stuff.

Set up shelves to organize it,

having visions of standing back to a hallelujah chorus of angels...

only to realize how little we really did have.

(cue music: whuaa, whuaa, whuaa)

  

Seriously, folks...

not a whole lot to speak of...

... so in a vast effort to keep the enthusiasm, I told myself, "well, this is a great time for a 'before' picture!"

and I decided to document our climb into the food storage world,

one grain at a time...

And so begins our baby steps to food storage project...

adding in a new shelf...

And watching it grow bit

by bit...

even starting to fill these...

with these...

yes, that middle shelf is holding 50 pounds of black beans.

... I feel a canning party coming on!

baby steps, folks.  baby steps.

I'll get to the 2 TON mark.

one grain at a time :)

They may have the same birthday...

But that's about all they have in common...

It has been a very interesting experience to raise twins

Especially some as different in every aspect as our boy and girl.

They have all of the classic differences:

one completely outgoing

one who I had to literally carry to the stage kicking and screaming for his first violin recital

...  one who loves reading

... and one who loves math

... one who picks up on things very quickly

... and one who needs plenty of repetition and practice to master some things

Yep, same birthday,

Different everything else.

This years Valentine's Day mailboxes are no exception to the rule:

Seth's box

(finished in about 10 min)

Sarah's box

(which took well into the night, 

and then some more 'touch ups' in the morning to complete)

Love my twins!!

Weather Channel, Minnesota Style...

When it hits negative 20 with windchill, 

Minnesotans finally don the gloves...

 ... and fire up the boot warmers (Julie - aren't you jealous??!  Yes, they DO work, and yes, we DO love them!!)

 ... and put the gloves in the fridge to warm up...

... and still beg to go outback on the porch and play... with a smile on our face :)

When it hits zero...


the "why do we have to wear our coats, it's WARM outside" whines begin...

... and capes become the cover of choice...



When it actually breaks 32,


We can finally chip off enough snow to build the annual mammoth snow man

And in the rare instance that it actually reads 50 degrees,


Shoes suddenly become 'optional equipment'
And shorts actually make their yearly debut...