Why do I have to wear this dumb girlie hat?

You're so vain, I bet you think this column is about you

Michelle Lehnardt wrote Dec. 30,2007 in the Salt Lake Tribune:

Two recent studies have spotlighted Utah and Salt Lake City. First, according to Mental Health America, Utah is the most depressed state in the nation. I wasn't surprised in the least by the findings.

I've heard about the legions of Mormon women on Prozac for years, and have seen depression up close in my friends and relatives.

The second study was done by Forbes magazine, and declares Salt Lake City the most vain city in the United States. Forbes was shocked by its own findings (based primarily on plastic surgeons per capita) but again, I wasn't surprised.

Any outing in Salt Lake whether it be to a sporting event, PTA meeting, or baby shower reveals masses of gorgeous women who work very hard to maintain their beauty.

So do these studies have a connection? Does our vanity, our obsession with perfection , our worries about what others think contribute to depression? I believe they do.

Salt Lake City is a haven of outdoor sports, clean living, and fresh faces. But it is also a society with an inexplicable desire to "measure up". This isn't simply an LDS phenomenon, but our unique population mix seems to encourage everyone to go "faster, higher, stronger".

In many ways this friendly competition and desire to succeed are good things. Utah boasts more charitable service hours per capita than any other state. Our children test well and attend college in relatively high numbers. We have a relatively low child obesity rate. Most kids are involved in sports. And we certainly are beautiful.

I admit to being quite vain myself. I run several miles daily, pluck my eyebrows, apply wrinkle/acne cream each night and spend far too much time and money on my wardrobe.

And to some degree my vanity brings me happiness. I know from experience that I am much happier showered and dressed nicely even if my day consists of nothing more than grocery shopping and tending sick children. I love the vigor and agility that decades of fitness have given me. I know that I am kinder and gentler with other people when I feel good about myself.

But I've seen the darker side of my vanity when I obsess over flaws and pounds and become self-consumed. In these times depression haunts me as I become jealous and anxious.

When I was expecting my third son, I called my husband from the doctor's office. "I've gained 10 pounds this month! I'm so fat! What is wrong with my body?

In his sweet but firm way, my husband replied "You are pregnant. You are supposed to gain weight. There's nothing wrong with you. If you want to see someone whose body has turned on her go up to LDS Hospital to see your friend Anne in the cancer ward. She would be happy to have those 10 pounds."

My friend Anne died of cancer the next day. She was 28 years old and left a loving husband and darling 3 year old daughter behind. Anne never had the chance to grow old and flabby and gray.

I'd like to say that after Anne's death I never whined about my weight or appearance again, but, sadly, I still complain.

Yet, in my heart I know that wrinkles and gray hair are the rewards of a life and love and laughter. Bring it on. I will happily lose my looks for the pleasure of raising my children.

Ah, Salt Lake. I am glad we are so beautiful. It's lovely to live in a city that strives for excellence. But let's be sure our desire for beauty and success don't cloud our happiness. We simply have so much to live for.

my neighbor emailed this to me and I cried when I read it because I could relate--too much. I hope it helps you, too.

Tortilla Chicken Soup

I don't cook. So, because it is a new year and everyone is good in January, I am going to cook. Here is a yummy keeper recipe that I tried yesterday. It comes from Cooking Light Recipes from 2003.

1 t. veg. oil
1 c. finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 T. chili powder
1 t. cumin
1 t. oregano
2 (14 oz) cans chicken broth
1 (16 oz) can refried beans
1 bay leaf
1 oz. baked tortilla chips, crushed (about 2 c.)

Heal oil in a large saucepan over med. heat. Add onion and garlic, saute 3 minutes. Add chili powder and next 6 ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes. Remove from heat; discard bay leaf. Ladle into bowls, top with chips. (makes 4 servings)

My own version:
I added some cooked, shredded chicken that was leftover from my yummy chicken pizza the night before. And I severed it over rice which allowed it to serve 8 to 10. Cheese would be good on top, but that doesn't help with my mystery 13 pounds.
Enjoy!

AHHH, the smells of home

Here are some of the scents wafting through the air in our home this day... baby powder (dumped on Cole's bedroom carpet), pina colada (that would be shampoo dumped on my bedroom carpet), vaseline intensive care lotion (all over the bathroom floor--twice), cinnamon (the industrial size from Sam's Club dumped throughout the pantry), spicy red pepper flakes, (again, the gigantic bottle from Sam's Club emptied onto the kitchen floor). And this is all in the last 48 hours. This doesn't even cover the smell of Rick and the shopvac in the bathroom sucking the wash clothes out of the toilet that Cole tried to flush away yesterday. The entire package of floss he used to occupy himself for all of about 30 seconds. Or how about the entire tube of toothpaste he used to paint the sink at the neighbors house down the street that we visited with on New Years Eve. I thought I was just being a nice mom by not wiping his adorable little hand prints from the fridge 5 times a day because some day I will miss those tiny little handprints. But, I will NOT miss vacuuming, scrubbing, and picking up dumptrucks filled with butter, yes, butter.

Hey Utah...

Happy to You. Yep, it's your birthday. You are 112. I hope I look that good at 112. I think I'll bake a cake to celebrate with you. Oooops. Can't do that because of the mystery 13. I'll just drink a diet coke in your honor.
And speaking of the mystery 13, I just got home from the gym. 4.63 miles on the treadmill, some lunges, and a few random arm exercises. Hooray for me. However, I just want to say that I was watching the Today show while I was running and I want to say...Brittney Speares--GO AWAY. Forever. you do not deserve your children and my children do not deserve you for a role model. So, leave.

New Years Resolution:

Clean the storage room.






















I have been working on the storage room. First I had to get all of the fall decorations organized and put into bins. Then I had to round up all of the Christmas stuff. I thought that I didn't have many Christmas decorations until I had to box them all back up and make them fit on the shelf. Now, the problem is that the shelves were made more for looks than for function--they are sagging, especially where I have my canned foods for food storage...what to do...

1000 piece puzzle

This is what I spent my entire Christmas holidays working on:

It's like an eye spy puzzle. Atfer you get the puzzle put together, then you try to find 10 things for each letter of the alphabet in the picture.

And that is why the entire house looks like this room--the playroom.

Happy to You

We've had a few birthday parties over the past few weeks, the most notable being Cole's 2 year birthday. So, Cole has had the chance to practice singing, "Happy Birthday to You" on more than one occasion. He has been going around the house singing that song the last few days, but he always leaves out the word birthday so the phrase is "Happy to You". It's quite cute (like everything my spoiled son does). Now we greet each other around the house with "Happy to You". I love that little phrase and so we use it to say to each of you "Happy to You". Happy New Year. Happy Day. Happy Night. Happy sleep. Happy in all that you do in 2008. Happy to You.

Stitches and the Bee

We were sitting around on my bed talking last night while Rick was at work and the girls got talking about getting stitches/staples and the scars from them. Summer had staples in her head about 18 months ago and is very proud of the fact that she didn't even need a "numbing shot" because she was tough enough to just take it (I'm still not sure that I believe that, but since I wasn't there I just have to take the story as it is told). Anyway, the girls were talking about when Hunter got her stitches in her forehead. So, they had to retell that story. I didn't get the complete story, but Sierra said that she jumped up off some rocks because a bee was coming. Hunter jumped up as well and followed Sierra to get away from the bee. But, she slipped and fell and hit her head on a sharp, pointy rock. I said, "Sierra, are you the reason Hunter fell and had to get stitches?" Sierra said, "No, it was the bee's fault that Hunter got stitches." Good job, Sierra, pin the blame on somebody (or something) else.

It's official...

my Tuesday nights are now booked for the entire year. Yep, I'm the proud new owner of 17 high maintenance Beehives (the 12-13 year olds at church). As if Cole didn't drain every ounce of energy from my weary body, I now have a bunch of tweens to keep me busy. I'm actually pretty excited about it. The YW presidency is brand new and so are all of the advisors. They're all really fun ladies and I'm looking forward to getting to know people--finally. I loved my 5 Primary girls, but I needed a little bit more than teaching Primary every other week. This ought to do the trick.

mystery 13

The mystery is where these 13 pounds have come from that I have gained in the last year. I believe that 3 of them have shown up over the holidays. I really am OK with that (not) because most people gain an average of 7 to 9 pounds over the holidays. So, I am doing better than average.
Another 3 pounds are from the trip to Seattle and Vancouver Island where Rick thought it was necessary to test out every single bakery on the way (and my oh my that Beehive pastry from the Goat on the Roof store was delightful). OK, so we've accounted for 6 pounds that leaves another 7 pounds that have shown up out of nowhere. I think I will blame it on the Mapleton water, although if I were just drinking the Mapleton water I would weigh seven pounds less instead of seven pounds more. I've decided that living in Mapleton is like living on the moon and I just weigh more because of gravity. Except that if it really were like living on the moon I would weigh less instead of more. So, I guess I will just stop making excuses and take full responsibility for every one of those 13 pounds. I brought it upon myself one cookie at a time.
So, this is what we are going to do about it:
no more treats, except on Treat Day. That worked great for us in Michigan it's just that now we're in Mapleton every day is Treat Day.
Another thing that I'm super excited about is the wonderful Christmas present that Rick and I got: a tread mill, a rowing machine, a stair stepper, an elliptical machine, free weights, and more. All we have to do is go down the street about a mile and a nice man named Dave will let us use all this stuff for about $50 a month, plus we can use it 24 hours a day 365 days a week. You guessed it--a gym pass. It's the closest thing to the convenience and atmosphere that we liked in MS at the YMCA plus the comfort and style of the Genesys Athletic Club in MI.
I got new running shoes a few weeks ago and the kids got me new exercise clothes for Christmas, so we should be set.
The last thing I need to do is to finish off all of the pumpkin pie in the fridge, chips in the pantry and chocolates in the cupboard so that we can get off to a great start on New Years. I just need to get over this nasty head cold so that I can workout without coughing up a lung. Wish us luck.

Vacuuming

we are seriously vacuuming for the third time today. The first time was just because. The second time was because Cole dumped an entire box (sam's club portion) of dish washer detergent on the kitchen floor. And now the girls are downstairs vacuuming beads up off the floor. I don't even care if the beads are made of gold, I am so tired of his messes that I am willing to clean it up the quickest way possible. Hmmm, sounds like he is in the bathroom with the plunger--can't be good--better run...

Christmas Day

Lance, Fisher, Cole, Summer, Sierra

Fisher and Cole

Uncle BryBry

Grandma Nan

Grandma Nan got a camera for Christmas.

December 25

Is it too early to take down the tree?

More sleepy pictures

Summer wasn't home and I was talking to Sierra. For a while she answered me and then she stopped. This is what I found.

Then Cole discovered that Sierra was asleep. So, he helped me to wake her up. She didn't wake easily so Cole took out her earrings.

can I mow your lawn?

I don't know why I thought this was so funny, but when Cole got out of the tub all he wanted to do was mow.

snowcones...

The Wise Women

Compliments from an email from my good friend Janey...

What would have happened if it had been the three Wise Woman instead of three Wise Men?

* They would have asked directions...

* arrived on time...

* helped deliver the baby...

* cleaned the stable...

* brought practical gifts

* made a casserole

But what would they have said as they left?

As they left, they would have said...

"Did you see the sandals Mary was wearing with that gown?"

"Did you see that Drummer boy, He can beat my drum anytime"

"Want to bet on how long it will take before you get your casserole dish back?"

"I heard that Joseph isn't even working right now!"

"And that donkey they are riding has seen better days too!"

"Virgin, my ####! I knew her in school!"

"That baby doesn't look anything like Joseph!"

Trolls

We are currently reading the 5th Harry Potter book with the girls. Rick was on our bed reading a few nights ago and I was getting Cole ready for bed, cleaning up the bathroom and doing about 8 other things all at the same time because that is what moms do. I could hear bits and pieces of Rick's reading and one word that kept coming up was TROLL. I was just laughing out loud. Because I didn't hear the entire context of the reading, the thoughts that came to my mind were from years ago when I would hear my dad use the word TROLL. He would use that word in reference to someone who was not blessed with a cover model face. ie "That girl in line behind us at Walmart was a real troll." ahhhh, Kentisms.
So, next time you see a troll, just laugh and think of Papa Kent.

Christmas Morning 2006

Christmas Questioneer

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? gift bags. My mom was a gift wrapper at ZCMI for years and years. Her packages were always decorated to the nines. I was so intimidated, I was lucky to get my gifts wrapped at all.
2. Real tree or artificial? artificial.
3. When do you put up the tree? the day after Thanksgiving
4. When does the tree come down? The day after Christmas if I can wait that long.
5. Do you like eggnog? love it. Reminds me of my dad when he would bring it home and add a little bit of 7up.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? package from Grandma each year. She'd wrap a toothbrush and tooth paste, a few other little odds and ends, add in a US saving bond, and wrap up the whole thing. We loved opening the little individual packages.
7. Do you have a Nativity scene? yes
8. Hardest person to buy for? RICK
9. Easiest person to buy for? Summer
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? morning sickness, thanks Summer
11. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? I love to get a letter in the mail, I'll keep sending them as long as stamps are less than $1
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Christmas vacation, although I'm realizing that the kids don't need to watch it with me.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? January
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Christmas, no
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? peacan pie, ponoche, oranges, sugar cookies
16 Clear lights or colored on the tree? clear
17. Favorite Christmas song? Silent night
18 Travel at Christmas or stay home? HOME
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? yes, and it's Donder, by the way
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? traffic
23. Favorite Christmas tradition? leaving cookies for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer
24. Up early or sleeping in? sleep in, please
25. Who hands out the gifts? the person who happens to be closest to the tree
26. Does Santa wrap your gifts? He used to at the Robison's, but not at the Herlevi's causing quite a controversy over the years.
27. Do you tell the Christmas story? yes
28. Do you leave cookies for Santa? yes, and milk--skim

Fire King find

This is my latest find. These are fireking primrose custard cups. They were made some time between 1960 and 1962. Two of them have designs on the back side also. Total price: $1.50

Christmas Elves

These are the cute little Christmas Elves that Sierra and I made last night. The most exciting part about it is that I made them entirely from supplies that we had on hand. No purchase necessary! Now, there is one for each child to keep watch on them for the next 10 days to see who is naughty and who is nice.

Christmas Basket

This is the Christmas arrangement that I made for the ward party. After the party we will take it to the cemetary to Papa Kent. The little bear in the middle is a kid's meal toy from Arctic Circle that the girls added.

Playin' Hooky

The girls had a dentist appointment this morning at 9:00. We left the house at 8:45 (to look for the missing cell phone BUT that's another story). The dentist took less than hour. I wanted to go to Target but Sierra is NOT a shopper and Summer voted that because we had Cole and a "non-shopper", Target would not be that much fun. So, we went to Grandma Bette's and ate cookies and watched the cartoon network until 11:00. We waited until 11:00 because that is when Color Me Mine opened. (a ceramic do it your self place where the kids got a gift certificate for Christmas last year.) Summer, Sierra and I pulled up and found a parking spot about 3 miles away. We walked in 17 degree temps to the front of the store to find that the doors were locked. Tight. All 3 doors. No lights on. Another girl was standing off to the side. She had been there for 15 minutes waiting for the place to open because she was hoping to pick up some things that she had made last week to give out as Christmas gifts. Another girl showed up at about 11:20. We all waited until about 11:30, then we decided to go grab some lunch since it was too late to get back to school in time for lunch. Where did we go? Arctic Circle. We like the prices. Hehehe. I called my mom and she said she'd meet us there as soon as she got her hair done. She was going to bring me some things I needed so I thought it was a good place to meet. We ate a small lunch (we are trying to eat healthy) and waited and waited. We ended up working for free for an hour just to have something to do. Even the girls helped. It was kind of fun. Then Mom came and we chatted for about 3 minutes. We had to get Summer back to the last 30 minutes of school. We went back to Grandma Bette's to pick up Cole. He was having fun and Summer decided to go back to CMM and do a project since we had that planned--finally--after having the gift certificate for 50 weeks. I think she was afraid that it would take another 50 weeks to get back. I called this time to make sure someone was there. I happened to mention that we had tried to come earlier, but nobody was there. I think I got someone in trouble. Oooops. We went in and found a project to do. Sierra did a little ladybug jewelry dish with a lady bug lid. Summer did a pink, black and gray plate to go in her future Paris bedroom and I did a blue dish the brown polka dots to use as a ring dish on my shelf in my closet. We had so much fun. The girls want to go back tomorrow. I was kicking myself for not having my camera with me. (I really wish I had a better camera--I sure hope I get one for Christmas.) Our projects will be ready on Tuesday and I will be sure to post some photos of our art. We went back to Grandma Bette's and Cole was taking a nap. We left him with Grandpa and a peanut butter sandwich for when he woke up. And we were off to the mall. We were looking for shirts/sweaters for the upcoming Herlevi Family Photo Shoot. After about an hour Sierra was asking, "Why didn't you tell me we were just going to walk around and look at clothes?" Summer replied, "Sierra, that's what people do when they go to the mall, duh." So typical of both of them. Summer was really upset when we left without anything for her and Sierra was thrilled to death that we were finally leaving. We grabbed Cole and our gear and headed back to Mapleton because it was snowing and because it was almost bedtime. The girls couldn't stop talking on the way home about what we are going to do next time they play hooky. They said it was their "best day ever". I love it when they say that. I can't wait to play hooky again, too.

Great elf Idea for kids

I found this online and I thought it would be fun to do so I posted it on here so I would remember where to find it...

Christmas is approaching, and this is the day

Santa has sent Mr. Peeps to your house to stay.

He send this small elf to your house and mine.

The day after Thanksgiving, He must be on time.

Mr. Peeps has a purpose. His purpose will be,

To whisper to Santa all the good that he sees.

Soon after he gets here, he moves only at night

To high places, low places, he stays in plain sight.

In the kitchen, for instance, he sits high on a shelf.

Mr. Peeps can sit anywhere, for he is an elf.

He holds very still when he thinks you are watching.

His magic is precious, it fades with on touching.

He sits on the tree on Christmas Eve day.

He knows that Santa is soon on his way.

He waits and he waits without making a noise.

He waits until Santa arrives with the toys.

So you better be nice and mind what you say

Because Mr. Peeps will tell Santa when he comes with his sleigh.

Once Christmas is here and Santa has come,

Mr. Peeps must leave, for his job is well done.

But, he will return next year on the very same day,

To watch your behavior as you work and play.

- Sharon Reynolds

So whatcha think? It's a fun way to keep the little ones good because Mr Peeps is watching to tell Santa if you are good or not and how fun for them to discover where he has moved to during the night.

If you are feeling a bit "elfy" now I found a few elf DIY projects.

clay pot elf

Elf poop anyone? *snicker*

Elf Pixie Hat

Elf coloring page