Here are a few jems from Merritt to make your day bright.
I didn't have enough regular change to pay Merritt's allowance (chore duty money) so I had to include 15 pennies. When I dumped the handful of coins into his hands he got a big smile on his face and said, "Look at all this money! I'm rich!"
Merritt was reading his nightly Book of Mormon verse, which was 1 Nephi 4:4. When he read the words, "and did still continue to murmur," he threw up his hands in disgust and said: "Ugh! Laman and Lemuel are murmuring again! I hate that! When will they learn to stop complaining so much? It's so annoying!" I had to laugh.
I had a great hair day today. It was the kind of day where my hair practically did itself. Those days are, unfortunately, few and far between. Why can't this happen when I have a hot date? I'd even be glad for a good hair Sunday, that would be nice. As it was, my fabulous tresses were admired by Grace ("Pretty hair mom!") and eaten and pulled by Grant. Maybe the lucky employees at Target were impressed.
Here is a picture of me in all my garb for the Emerald Ward's production of The Ten Virgins. I played the part of Leora and got to be a wise woman...for once! Many thanks to Heather for coming up to see my performance, which I felt went well except for the part when I was singing and felt like I might have to cough and then involuntarily did a weird sort of hiccup...oh well! Hopefully everyone thought it was an emotional break in my voice rather than an absurd gasp for air. I CAN HOPE, CAN'T I?
It's true, when I've had my fill and am all stressed out, I will occasionally let fly a cuss word. I am trying to be better about that, but I haven't conquered that particular mountain quite yet. But, before you judge me, let me tell you my story. Tuesday was an impossibly busy day for me. It started at about 1:30 in the morning, when Grace woke up coughing and choking on phlegm. Chad ran her into the bathroom so she could spit it all out and I held her as she shook and cried. We took her into bed with us until she was warm and calm and sleepy (and blessed by the Lord through Chad), and then put her back in her own bed. She slept well the remainder of the night, but Grant woke up crying at 4:54am. I looked at the clock and decided to let him cry it out, but a particularly ear-splitting wail had me flying out of bed to grab him. I was so tired and didn't want to be up, but I didn't know what else to do. We went together to get Grant his sippy cup of OJ and the thought came to me to put him back in bed with his juice. I did so and he went back to sleep, which got me another blessed hour of rest until Grace woke up at 6:00. She was feverish and listless, and cried every time she coughed because she thought that meant she was going to throw up.
After our morning routine of breakfast, bath, getting dressed, and making beds, I ran Merritt to school and then tried to get as much done as I could before heading off to the dentist. I dropped the kids off at Jeannine's house and then went in for a cleaning, a filling, and to have my new crown glued into my mouth. After two hours of dental fun I went back to Jeannine's house to find both my kiddos asleep. They had just been down for a little bit and I didn't want to move them, so I hung out there for another hour. Jeannine's dog Snow (who is huge and fluffy and white) came and slept with Grant, it was so cute! The great thing about having a mother in law who owns dogs is that she isn't phased by life's little messes. She had been holding Grant when Grace announced she needed to go to the bathroom. Since Grace was feeling so tired and worn, she needed help to get to the potty and they didn't make it there in time. Jeannine doesn't get mad about that kind of stuff, she just cleaned it up and helped Grace to feel loved...she's so great. I talked to my parents on IM, helped Jeannine with some odds and ends, and reviewed my lines for the performance I was to be involved in later that evening. After finally getting home, I tried to get chores and things done, but it is very hard to do that when one's children are sick. I was so involved with taking care of Grace, obsessing about the soup I still had to make for the Relief Society dinner, reviewing my lines and singing my song again and again that I did something I've never done before...I forgot to pick up Merritt. When the school called to ask if anyone was going to come and pick up Merritt I yelled, "Oh Crap!" (no, this isn't the swearing part yet) into the phone and dashed out the door. Merritt was a total good sport about the whole thing, which made life easier for me.
The time was now 4:00pm, the time I had designated for making two pots of soup, one for the RS dinner and one for my family. I wanted to get started on it, but everyone was either hungry, or crying, or sick, or poopy...anything but happy and self sufficient. I felt my stress levels begin to rise. I had to get the soup done before 5:45, when I had to be at the church for a final rehearsal. I was finally able to begin on the soup in earnest at 4:45, which meant that it would be finished one hour later. Just in time. Grant was holding onto my pant leg and crying, but at least Merritt and Grace were settled. I kept handing Grant little things to play with that would pacify him for a few minutes before he would get up again and cry on my leg. Meanwhile I was chopping and grating and crying over some really strong onions (I had to tie a rag to my face...I must have looked like a convenience store robber or something) but things were going well until I made a fatal mistake. Since I had doubled the amount of vegetables, I decided to turn the heat up just a notch to make sure they cooked properly. I set the timer for 10 minutes and occasionally turned back to stir the vegetables while also madly trying to chop potatoes. In the last minute, all the vegetables burned. When I smelled that sweet, burning smell and turned to see 30 minutes worth of work go up in smoke I couldn't help myself. I pulled the pan off the burner and yelled "Damn-it!" Chad came running in and I showed him the mess. He picked up the still crying Grant while I stomped my foot and yelled again for good measure, "DAMN-IT!" As my curse word flew from my mouth, the door bell ran...Ding-Dong! Chad went to answer the door and there stood Brian Mulholland from our ward, with bread in hand and big wide eyes. Bless his heart, he had brought us some goodies from work (Winder Dairy) as a thank you for taking his family some dinner the night before. Now he had arrived at our home to be greeted by a wailing baby and a loud profanity. I was still at this point not in any kind of good humor, so when Chad insanely tried to call me to the door to show my good manners all he got was a stressed and nasty, "What?" I stomped out, declared I'd burned the dinner, and stomped back to the kitchen. Brian handed us the bread and left, Chad took Grant downstairs and I started chopping again. Ten minutes later, after Grant was calm (I gave him a sucker out of sheer desperation) and Chad was helping me, the whole thing got really hilarious and I started to laugh. It got even funnier when Brian's wife Debbie called to check on me: "So, how are things?" I accepted the fact that I would just be late and got on with life. The soup was finished finally (and it was yummy), I made it to the church by 6:15 (still before the dinner started and with enough time to practice my song and get ready since we were skipping dinner anyway), and all really was well. I'm giving up swearing though. :)
Sorry for the Yo Gabba Gabba reference, but I made the best dang dessert last night...it really was a party in my tummy. We had hilarious company, little kids for our kids to play with, and an outstanding cup of sweet chocolaty goodness. I'm so nice that I will totally share the recipe:
Hot Chocolate Pudding
Orange Whipped Cream
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. grated orange zest
(I totally doubled this portion of the recipie - it is awesome!)
Pudding
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 T. cornstarch
3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 pinch salt
9 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 T. unsalted butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
In a small bow, with a handheld electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream, sugar and orange zest until soft peaks form Refrigerate while making pudding. (YOU MUST DO THIS FIRST!!)
In a medium saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; whisk in milk, cream and salt until blended. Cook over medium heat, whisking gently, just until mixture thickens and comes to a boil. Remove pan from heat; stir in chocolate, butter and vanilla until smooth. With a handheld electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat until light and fluffy. Divide pudding into 4 (6 oz.) ramekins; top each with a dollop of Orange Whipped Cream. Serve immediately.
The pudding will still be warm when it is served, and it is so rich that a little goes a long way. I filled the ramekins (you can use small bowls or whatever you have handy) 2/3 full and it totally hit the spot. That served 4 adults and there was plenty left over for three little ones to have pudding too. So Good!
Merritt has become enamored of my can opener. He watched me open a can of tomato sauce wit
h it and was so impressed by its abilities that he immediately appropriated it. The can opener is now named Rexie and is, as I'm sure you can guess, a T-Rex with amazing sharp teeth. So, I was making spaghetti sauce today and couldn't open one of my jars of fresh canned tomatoes. I called Chad up to open it for me and Merritt followed quickly behind him declaring that Rexie could do it better. I explained that it wasn't a job for Rexie, but that I would call if I needed a can opening dinosaur. About 10 minutes later, that call came. I needed tomato sauce and tomato paste opened. I showed Merritt how it was done and he proudly opened those cans for me. Then he went downstairs and told Chad, "Rexie is a stronger helper than you. You opened the can with your hands but he cut it open with his teeth!"
This is how a trip to get a Christmas tree became a voyage to the far reaches of Layton. We left the house at about a quarter to five in order to pick up a a tree. I had just finished making some pizza dough and plopped it into the bowl to rise. It needed 45 minutes, and I figured that would give us plenty of time to snag a tree and get back home. I mean, I already had the nursery where we would buy our tree picked out and everything, how long could it all take...really? How about one HOUR and 45 MINUTES! The first nursery had no trees, ditto number two. I couldn't help but think that this was a weird development. Every nursery in Orem had Christmas trees plus there was a tree lot every five blocks on State Street. We decided to go to a third nursery (we'd never been there but had seen signs pointing to where it should be) and ended up on a road to the middle of nowhere. By this time we were all feeling a bit frustrated, but then I remembered "come what may, and love it" and started to laugh. We made our way back to civilization and after driving 20 blocks finally saw the shining lights of a tree lot. (It must be the only one in Layton!) We watched the singing Christmas tree, petted the Santa dog, ate some candy canes and found the perfect tree. Of course, I didn't bring my check book...but that's another story! Elder Wirthlin was so right, come what may, and love it.
