Useful Information

Because I am helpful in nature, I wanted to pass on a little tip for all you married ladies out there. Make this cake for your man. It's the 2nd best thing you can do for him today.

My stepmom made a version of this cake (only we called it Texas Sheet Cake) and I was so excited to see Pioneer Woman version. She always gives the best step by step directions and it will melt in your mouth and make you beg for milk. Give it a try.

(Picture from Pioneer Woman Cooks.)

PS I really want Santa to get me a copy of her cookbook. So Santa, if your listening. . . purdy please.

Quacked Up

Do you have a store that when you walk into your eyes dance with utter joy and excitement? I do. If you ever get a chance to go to an Anthropologie, you will be in my personal heaven. In fact in my heaven this store is right across the street of my craftsman lakeside bungalow, next to my personal Starbucks, just kitty corner from Rebecca's True La Boo Foo Foo Spa.

Anthropologie is way out of my pocketbook's league but oh my, do I love me some inspiration when I stroll through this eclectic paradise. Their vintage stuff is really what kills me. I am the proud owner of some of these glasses:

Then something happened that rocked me to my core and made me question all that I believe in. In their catalogue I saw these shoes:

Have you ever, EVER seen shoes this ridiculous? And then I thought to myself, "Self, what if you had a cousin that collected mallard ducks and you thought this would bring a smile to her face if I bought these for her." Then I saw that these duck-head shoes are $350 ducks, I mean BUCKS. My faith has been shaken and that buyer needs to be fired.

Camera Hogs

I wanted to find something special for ya'll tonight so I started looking at old home video. This one made me laugh so it won for the evening. This is a battle for camera time and you'll be surprised who wins the fight and makes a run for it with the evidence. Watch at your own risk. I will not be responsible for the irritating whining that may cause your ears to bleed.

Run Jabe, run!

Scientific Evidence

Here at Glory Laine we are all about giving you the facts. We believe knowledge is the key to education. (Feel free to embroider that last sentence on a pillow.) So with that I give you the honest to goodness reason the dinosaurs became existent.

Wordless Wednesday: Daphne 9 Months

Inspired by this post.

Very Cool

A few pictures of our last day.

I have had 32 years of being cool, and my coolness told me I NEEDED to buy this hat.

Hot Hot Hot

Don't tell, but I'm steeling Wi-Fi again, but I had to show you these natural hot springs that Matt and I got to enjoy tonight.

It claims to have, "healing mineral waters" I was hoping to come out a bit thinner but alas still all my vacation calories are still on my hips. I hate false advertising.

Where I'm At

Matt and I are on a little get-a-way to our family cabin in Idaho. We are "little house on the prairie-ing" it and have no internet access. I guess we aren't roughing it too bad, we do have running water, soft beds, wine and chocolate cake but with no internet I feel like a true pioneer. So I've had to drive around the small city of McCall trying to steel internet to continue my commitment to blogging everyday. Sleep well blogging friends.

Flashback Friday

This is me in eighth or ninth grade. I know because I have braces and my bangs are sprayed to the side. My next phase I would have straight bangs trying to imitate Kelly from 90210. A few things take note of: The phone. It has a rotary dial, no caller ID, it was just a crap shoot when the phone was ringing. And notice the phone cord. We got an extra long one so I could stretch it as far as possible, behind the fridge, out to the garage.

And just look at the clothes! Jeans that went up to my neck and a vest. A VEST. I also have that teenage look of perpetual annoyance on my face. And then at last my little sister. Six years younger, gazing upon me just praying she can be as cool as me. I know she still thinks that to this day.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Wordless Wednesday

Daydreamin'

daydream |ˈdāˌdrēm|

nouna series of pleasant thoughts that distract one's attention from the present.
I really don't have anything to be stressed about right now. Tobin is watching a movie, the twins are ignoring the construction work outside their window and are sleeping away. Matt is bringing home the bacon and I had a great MOPS meeting and a $2 Java Crew today. Life is good. But I can't help to daydream about some quality me time. I'll share my fantasy if you share yours. A little cabin nestled in the woods by a lake. A hammock, books, and a box of Little Debbies. A few days of that and I'd come back a new woman. I'd still have saggy breasts but my mind would be firm. Here is a great picture of Jill, Stef, and I at Stef's family cabin. This picture takes me back to all of us surrounded by quiet. Only breaking it if someone had to share what they were reading.So now it's your turn. Tell me your daydream.

How Do They Do That?

I'm not finished with my story I'm writing about how Matt tried to trick and deceive me when we were 17 and I need to post something tonight so I went flipping through old photos for something half way interesting to blog about tonight. And I found myself staring at this photo of Phoebe just a few weeks old.

It's amazing how bendy infants are. Maybe mine had to be extra bendy to fit two inside my tiny apartment. Did you know they were womb mates?

Here she is flashing some gang signs.

Warning: I'm not a parenting expert but I don't recommend having your newborns hat covering her access to air. So grab your cameras quick so she can breath again.

Sunday Open House: Entryway

I'm really going to try to do this blogging everyday for a month thing again. And I'll take this opportunity during Nanoploblablabla. . . to finally welcome you into the house that we have been living in for almost a year now. Each Sunday I'll take you to a different part of the house but I am cheating today and just letting you into the entryway. This is a picture of the house in August. Can you see Phoebe?

There she is!

So wipe your feet and come on in.

These pictures are all done from the living room looking at the font door. My apologies that I wasn't thinking of this post when snapping away.

You'll notice we did some extra trim work in this small area to really make it interesting. I have no hall closet so I added black hooks for guest to hang coats, hats and bags.

I spent an entire summer hunting down cheep, unique black frames so I could acheive this gallery look. It's an awesome way to welcome people.

And did you notice the small church pews? They might be my most favorite pieces of anything I have in my home. They are from our church. The same church that Matt and I met in when we were six years old. The same church that we fell in love with God and then each other. The same one we married in and dedicated our children in. Our church recently got rid of all of it's beautiful wooden pews and put in chairs for our growing congregation. In the back of our sanctuary sat these little four foot pews and while sitting on them one Sunday morning, I whispered to Matt, "I wonder what the church is planning on doing with these little pews? I would love to buy them." Matt told me, "pipe down and listen to the preaching Devil Woman!". Fast forward two hours I'm saying goodbye to my four and five year old class and making sure they have all their puppets made from lunch sacks and removing the felt Jesus from the flannel board and Matt tells me that the little pews are mine! I mean ours. We refinished them and I am so honored to have them in our home.

BOO!

Halloween 2009

Introducing:

Tobin as Luke Skywalker (who stole Darth Vader's light saber because Tobin can't find his blue one.)

Phoebe as Wendy Darling

Seeing her hair in "grandma" curlers.

Jabe as Peter Pan

I am so proud of myself that I spent only $10 total on all these costumes! Martha needs to just step it up a notch before I do a hostile take over on her empire. I thought I should at least do one post in the month of October. Really I was just saving my energy because starting tomorrow I will be blogging everyday during the month of November!

Don't Cha Just Love A Wedding?

I love attending beautiful weddings. Last night my cousin Shelby said her vows in an outside wedding. She has guts for planning an outdoor wedding in September (in OREGON!) but the weather was perfect. White chairs and beautiful flowers designed by this up and coming florist in Portland (My sister-in-law, Dorinda!). The food was soooo good. Wine, salmon, grilled asparagus, sweet potatoes, and mushrooms.

Best of all my heart was so warm seeing my cousin, whom I adore, find such a wonderful man, and committing to a life together. I love the pastors words when she said, "Through difficult times may they find the path towards growth and maturity." Or something like that I wasn't really listening. Anyway it was a beautiful wedding. Here are some pictures I snapped with my broken pocket camera.

Father of the Bride and my Uncle Phil.

Fashion Lessons From My Kids

I was so excited to go school shopping for Tobin for the first time. Until I came home with shopping bags worth of great deals of stylish clothes that Tobin refuses to wear. Pretty much anything with a collar is unacceptable. And God forbid he wear any shoe that doesn't light up enough to land a plane. It's madding as he turns his nose up at a great striped rugby shirt for ummm lets say a black wolf tee all in the name of "coolness". So my six year old has taken away one of my largest parenting joys of having well dressed kids. But I have come to realize that as he is starting his new school career it should be about his confidence and not about me exerting my taste on him. Thank goodness I still have these three year olds you will wear anything I button on them.

When Jabe walked in to his Sunday school class teacher Kim asked him what was on his tie. Jabe gave the best man-fashion answer for his polka dots, "balls." he says.


I've been laying hands on Phoebe and Jabe that one of them will say no to cartoon t-shirts and plastic light up shoes in the future. But not holding my breath.

The Big Scary World of Kindergarten

Tuesday, Tobin put on his favorite "Rock Star" t-shirt and told me he was nervous. I tried to normalize it and tell him how this was all the Kindergartners first day I am was sure they all felt a little unsure. I asked him to tell me what exactly he was nervous about and then I got an earful.

He was nervous that the other kids would think he was weird.

He was scared the teacher would ask him a question he didn't know the answer to.

He is scared of bullies.

The list went on.

My first reaction to his nervous list was one of pride. His is so articulate. He can name his feelings and feels comfortable sharing them with me. He is ready for this. Because of his late August birthday Matt and I waited for him to be six to start school and that year has added a whole new layer of maturity. Dropping him off in his classroom he told me he was going to need me to stay the whole time. I gave him a squeeze, whispered he was my favorite kid in this whole room and that I couldn't wait to see him in two hours. And I left knowing fully that even though he doesn't know it, I know he is ready for this.

I took all the traditional first day pictures of him. (I think Child Protective Services are called if you don't)

Can you see the I'm-not-so-sure-about-this look in his eyes?

He did great. On his second day of school he told me he met a friend! I asked him what his name was. He rolled his eyes and said, "I don't know HER name, but she looks just like you only with ponytails and a butterfly sweater and a Tinker Bell backpack. And she's sits at the same table as me and I get to see her tomorrow!"

And so it begins.

Wordless Wednesday

He's All Mine Ladies

For me this week has been about catching my breath, or maybe just taking in a deep one. I was prepared for a longer infertility ride. One that might have included a baby or two. A ride I was most likely going to be on for two more cycles, possibly years apart.

Then ride just ended so suddenly. And although I am extremely grateful it wasn't prolonged unnecessarily, I do feel a touch of whiplash and a huge hormone dump happing. Just like that we are done.

I have been so happy that I wrote about this last leg of our infertility journey. Out of this I have just received so much encouragement from all your comments. Even some of you sent cards that were all composed so beautifully that I couldn't get through them without welling-up. Stef even came over on Tuesday after the test to watch my kids for a few hours, and made my family dinner. And I cried with her. Because we have had so much fun having babies together.

But for me the most delightful surprise was a note that came under my bedroom door Saturday night. It read:

My Love,

I wanted you to know how honored I am to be your husband. I am so proud of the woman you are, the mother you have become and the friend you've always been. I wanted you to know how thankful I am also that you have been willing to go through such strife to bring our beautiful children in to this world. You have done it with courage and class second to none. I wanted to treat you to a day of relaxation and fun in honor of your journey of motherhood. You are so loved! Thank you for being such a selfless champion for our family.

Love,

Matt

As you can imagine I was beaming after reading this. It then it went on to explain in detail how he was taking me away for the weekend to Portland for spa treatments and shopping.

We just got back and totally partied like rock stars. (Minus the drugs, and thrashing of our hotel room.) We stayed up until like 11 pm and slept in till like 7:45 am. It was CRAZY. I also bought a pair of ridiculously expensive jeans. I will take to my grave how much I spent on them but know that they give my bottom the appearance of firmness and my legs the illusion that they never stop. They just happen to be less money than plastic surgery so I purchased them!

This weekend was about Matt and I taking stock into the goodness of God's plan that unfolded fully for us this week. My sincere thanks for everyone who followed my Maybe Baby story.