Back to Work

School starts tomorrow. That means its time to rejoin the force of full time workers. This school year I am going to work on a few goals......

Like maintaining a positive attitude....

And having my dinner menu planned every week in advance so I am not worrying about what to make every night........

And exercising more regularly.........

And not being snippy with tc over stupid stuff........

Just a few goals to work on. The thing that is always the hardest about going back to work is leaving Miss Macy. She is so mcuh fun and we have had the best summer together. I would rather play with her all day than do anything else. But, ready or not my job is waiting, so here I go! Wish me luck!

Oh what do you do in the summertime?

Oh what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green????

Do you camp in your trailer?

Or go see cows in the fields of Greer?

Or go spotting for elk?

Or hang out on your cabin porch naked with your bum falling out of your diaper?

Or sign your daughter up for a twelve step program to get rid of plumber's crack?

Or pop out a baby?

Or realize that you can multi-task? Swinging and picking your nose with TWO fingers at the same time?

Or laugh at dad during breakfast?

Or read a ton of books with mamma?

Or play in hail storms?

And then dry off with grandpa.

Or fall down the cabin driveway and almost poke your eye out and spend the day in urgent care in Springerville?

Or just hang out and push your scooter around the porch?

Or ride motorcycles with dad? But always remember your helmet first.

Or walk in the room to discover that your husband has drawn chest hair on your daughter with a sharpie?

Or look like you are on drugs in every picture you take? what is with that?

Or play outside in the forest and get so dirty you love it?

Or camp with all of your cousins?

And get your pictures taken by the family paparazzi?

Or drown in the lake trying to wake board like you did in high school but now it doesn't work as well cuz your older and fatter?

But still so cute...

Or graduate college with a business degree and don't walk in your ceremony because you think walking is stupid and you are a putz and didn't do it even though your wife says you should have? Or get 1,000 dollars that she saved a year and a half for to spend on whatever you want as your graduation present?(He bought a big screen tv with his present for football season, go tc you are the man for graduating college!)

Or drive the power wheels with your cousins?

Or hang out with the ladies?

Or make peanut butter cookies with peanut butter m&ms on top? (So delicious!)

Or get your bottles finally taken away because the pediatrician says you have to? (Her favorite was getting one before bed, this was her favorite way to wind down in her bed, but alas no more, now its sippy cups only)

Or make stupid faces on the sliding glass door?

Or hang out at the beach in Mexico? ( Ok these are the oldest pics I have, they are actually from Easter 2010 but I thought I would throw them in...spring is close enough to summer right?)

IS that what you do in the summer ????

So do I! :-)

Proof that you can win the battle against infertility!!!!

I am proxy posting for my dear hermana about the arrival of her first daughter. I should have done this last week but it has been kind of crazy around my little corner of the world, so finally here it is:

Announcing

Brooklyn Jae Gaddie

Born Thursday, July 1, 2010

10:43 am

7 lbs. 9 oz. of pure cuteness!

This little girl is an absolute miracle. Truly, I think if you look up miracle in the dictionary her picture will be there! Mike and Kari struggled to get pregnant for 5 years...that is right, 5 years before the were able get this little girl. A lot of people do not even know that my sister has struggled with infertility in the past. It has been a very private battle for her, and she has kept it mostly among the family. I think they wanted to have babies pretty much immediately when they were married almost six years ago. They started trying, and I think that the first year it did not happen, they just chalked it up to bad luck. But then it was 2 years, then 3, and on and on with no baby. My sister loves children, and this absolutely crushed her inside. Along the way she learned she has PCOS, a horrible disease that was affecting her ability to conceive. It has to do mainly with your female reproductive anatomy, mainly growing a TON of cysts on your ovaries- but it is so much more than that. It attacks your whole body ( or at least in an extremely bad case like hers it does) and basically shoots your entire endocrine system to hell. Not only that, PCOS had some hard side effects to contend against, it affected her whole body in painful and awful ways.For example, about every four months the cysts on her ovaries would get so big that they would finally burst. It also mimics diabetes with your ability to process insulin and such.

Basically, it sucks.

On top of that we all could not help but wonder, ok- out of all of the crappy people in the world who have abortions or abuse their children etc., how come they all can have kids and not someone who is actually yearning for a baby????? Sometimes life does not make sense.

One thing I can say is that my sister never stopped trusting in the Lord, and her faith in him has made all the difference.

About 3 years ago now they were able to have the wonderful miracle of adopting their son Remington. And we have all decided that maybe he was the reason they could never get pregnant- if my sister had her own babies immediately, maybe she would have missed the opportunity to adopt this amazing little boy and give him the chance at a better life. She adores Rem, and we all knew he was always destined to be a part of their family, but for whatever reason he just had to be baked in a different oven :-) My sister had her pain of wanting a child eased, but she still wanted to become pregnant and give birth if she could.

Then, one day last November, I got the call- she was pregnant! And seemingly out of nowhere. They had just about given up on the ability to conceive, and then it happened! Needless to say we all dropped to our knees and thanked Heavenly Father for his blessings and love that he had shown us with this gift.

Fast forward nine months, to July 1, 2010. She is here now! The baby we thought would never happen is here! She is a precious miracle of joy and we are so happy to have her!

If she is not Mike's spitting image I don't know what she is!

Ok- so here is a little review of the labor/delivery experience. I have never met anyone so brave and amazing as my sister. She was in labor for 41 hours and then they finally had to take the baby via c section.(I don't know what the heck is wrong with the both of us that we cant freaking spit a baby out but whatever. ) She only had an epidural for about 15 hours of her labor, and when they gave it to her it only took on one side of her body because she has a wicked curve in her spine and it just did not go in correctly. Then, they tried to do a bunch of different things to make it work but it was no dice. So they had to reposition it a second time and that time it took pretty well - but she only got the full pain relief for about 5 hours. She got dilated all the way to an 8 1/2, but then she had been in labor so long her cervix began to get swollen and she went back down to a 6. So finally, they decided her water had been broken for too long and she was not progressing properly so they had to do surgery. But Kari was so brave and did not complain once! She is so amazing. They are both home recovering now and she is doing so good! We love them so much and think they are so amazing.

It is amazing how much joy and love a new baby can make you feel...kinda makes you baby hungry huh! Anyway, that is all for now. Welcome to the world Brooklyn!

I've always liked to kiss you...

So four years ago today, I became your

eternal make out buddy

Happy Anniversary

This explains EVERYTHING!!!!!

I just discover that the meaning of the name "Macy" is weapon.....and the meaning of her middle name Ann is "Graceful"

This is her personality to a t!

Macy Ann

Our little Graceful Weapon!

Here is a picture of the destroying muchacha running nude at the splash pad... with her gold shoes still on. See what I mean about the name? The perfect balance between "I do what I want" and grace :-)

Cooking my way

I love food. If my badonka donk did not already clue you in on that fact then here it is in writing. I love looking at the recipes that people put on their blogs and trying them out with my own spin. So I decided that I would share some of my recipes and the food knowledge I have as well.

Only I have to warn you- I have developed this completely irrational and unfounded fear that we are not going to need to eat in heaven. Do immortal bodies need the fuel? I know that Christ ate after he was resurrected, but it doesn't give me any more peace. What if we do eat, but its just manna, manna for all eternity....{a shudder runs down my spine..} So because of this fear I feel I must get in all of the delicious food there is in the world before its too late. So I do not shy away from fattening or bad for you foods. I really like healthy food, but I really like bad for you food too :-) When cooking try to remember that:

Butter makes it better

There isn't anything a little bacon grease cant fix

Sugar is your friend

So, with that intro here is a recipe from me. I thought for my first recipe I would do something controversial (mwuahahaha). I am tackling a veggie that has been given a bad name when really if you prepare it the right way, it is stinking delicious....

Brussels Sprouts - stop booing an hissing at the screen and just read on-

These little veggies have 3 times the vitamin c of an orange, tons of dietary fiber and are loaded with antioxidants and are have proven benefits in the area of cancer prevention. They don't seem so awful after all now do they?

Step 1: Get 20-25 sprouts at the grocery store. Wash them very well

Step 2: Chop them up finely so they resemble shredded lettuce

Step 3: Fry up some thick sliced bacon in your frying pan

Step 4: Remove bacon once its cooked and let it drain on a paper towel

Step Five: Put some Extra Virgin Olive Oil in with about two tablespoons of salted butter into your pan and get it melted. Add your chopped sprouts in. Add salt and pepper to the mixture and start to saute them. They will cook down in about 15 minutes. Make sure you more oil along the way if they seem dry.

Still cooking away...

Step 6: Once your sprouts have cooked down, add in the bacon and continue to cook

Step 7: Once your veggies have sufficiently cooked down, give em a taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. Make sure you don't skimp on the seasoning- if you skimp you might as well just throw it in the trash because its going to be bitter and yucky.

Step 8: Eat em up!

(Sorry this end picture is not that great, blame it on low blood sugar and shaky hands)

So there is my first shared recipe! I feel so.....well, hungry now! I will be posting some off and on. I hope that you can enjoy mine like I have enjoyed yours!