So there we were… the new couple… the newlyweds. Asked to give a talk in church.
Oh man! I don’t do talks. Not good ones, anyway.
Luckily, my topic was US! They asked me to introduce us as a couple and just talk about our relationship.
In preparation for my talk, I remember running across a story. A story about grapefruits. And it seems that when you are asked to give a talk or a lesson, you always find that you learn far more for yourself than you can ever teach to someone else.
This grapefruit story was exactly what I needed. And have since needed several times since.
We all know the ‘correct’ way to eat a grapefruit, right? Cut in half with a little bit of sugar on top… eaten with a spoon. Isn’t that how we all eat them?
You see in this story that I found, the husband ate his grapefruit all wrong. He peeled it… like an orange. Then he ate it section by section… like an orange. I mean, WHO DOES THAT?
The wife thought this was ridiculous and ridiculed her husband every time he ate a grapefruit telling him he ate it wrong. She would ask, “Why do you eat your grapefruit like that? You’re doing it wrong!”
He would shrug his shoulders and say, “It’s just a grapefruit, honey.”
When I found this story in preparation for my talk, I realized that I was being THAT wife. The one that ridiculed and belittled every move that my poor husband made. He had no idea what he was in for when he married me. And I can say the same for myself… I had no clue!
Who was this man that brushed his teeth like that? And what happened to the guy I was dating? The one that I heard fart a total of THREE times in just over a year… on ACCIDENT!! All of the sudden I was hearing 3 every hour! Sometimes not just hearing if you know what I mean. WHOOWEE!  The honeymoon ends, he’s got the girl and WHAM! He let’s loose! UGH! (Still working on that one…)
And dinner? Every night? I’m supposed to know how to cook, too? If you’re hungry, YOU make dinner!
Suddenly, I realized what I was doing to this poor man. The man that I loved! I was embarrassed about it. But I gave my talk, story included and got rave reviews afterwards. Now I had to try and live up to what I had preached.
Sometimes I do well, and most of the time I don’t. Just bein’ real. And Anthony always reminds me, all these years later, “It’s just a grapefruit, Brooke.” Any time I start picking at his faults (mostly quirks) he says it. It helps me to realize when I’m picking on my kids also. So what if they like their grapefruit different than I do. It’s not wrong, just different.
{And yet, totally wrong… cut in half WITHOUT sugar!? BLECH!}
But I realize that I need to look past the way they eat their grapefruits. Realize that if everyone ate theirs the same way I do the world would be a very boring place. I didn’t marry me, I married Anthony.
So today I say I’m sorry. To my husband, to my kids, to anyone else whose grapefruit eating ways have been demeaned by me.
I can truly say that I am glad you eat your grapefruits the way you do. Peeled, cut, chopped, pureed (weird), grilled, in a cup from Costco, with sugar, without sugar, or otherwise.
Happy GRAPEFRUITING!!
I have wanted to learn photography for as long as I can remember. Cameras have always been an important thing throughout my life but it wasn’t until last year that I finally justified getting a DSLR.
And there is no looking back now!
I’m already plotting to get another one (a nicer one!)… probably later rather than sooner, unfortunately. 
But for now I am having a blast with the one I’ve got.
Last week I said something on facebook about wanting Photoshop and lo and behold a friend ran me her old copy of CS2 right over. She had upgraded and didn’t need it anymore. And that, my friends, is the beauty of the internet!
Little did I know that Photoshop has such a learning curve! I’ve been watching tutorial after tutorial on YouTube, all the while confusing myself even more with all the information that’s trying to fill my little brain. I only have so many nooks and crannies to fill in that thing.
And so… a week and half later, I have finally edited my first two photos!
GO ME!
So, without further ado…
Before
After
Before
After
I’m tired. My poor husband has fallen asleep downstairs waiting for me to finish my edits so we can watch a movie. (It’s been a couple of hours… ) Yes, I said a couple of hours… for TWO, count them… TWO photos to be edited.
I’m pathetic.
Both pics were taken the same day… within the same hour, within the same 10 minutes… probably more like five minutes. No, she didn’t change shirts. It really is the bright yellow color in the first picture. But I really really LOVE the way the second edit turned out. The vintage-y feeling of it makes me happy.
And no, I don’t have a favorite child. She was just the only one willing to go on a mini session with me.
Isn’t she beautiful?
So, now I need feedback. Any photographers out there with some advice?
For the past few days I’ve had a nagging feeling that I need to write about my experience with postpartum. I don’t know why. It’s not something that I ever meant to share with anyone, let alone family and strangers alike. And yet, here I am. Maybe there’s someone out there that needs to know they are not alone.
That being said, I hope that by sharing my experiences I will not become the target of any harsh words or unkind remarks in regards to this very real situation. It is a very real and sometimes very scary place to be within yourself.
When I first found out that Anthony and I were expecting our first baby we were over the moon about it! I admit that I was nervous. I knew that starting a family with him meant there was no turning back. And by that I mean this….
…There was a time in the beginning of our courtship and marriage that I was, admittedly, in love with someone else. This someone else had gone on an LDS mission, I met Anthony a very short time later, ping ponged my feelings back and forth between the two of them and finally realized at some point that Anthony was the one that I was supposed to marry. I know others in my family saw it very differently but this is the truth. {More on that when I start on our Love Story}
Knowing that I was supposed to be with Anthony didn’t make it easy to write the Dear John letter to the missionary. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life and even as a married woman, I had an extremely hard time letting go of those feelings. Any time that I was upset with Anthony for whatever reason, my mind would race back to the missionary. Sometimes I would even create reasons to be upset with him. There was actually a time that I thought about divorcing Anthony in the hopes that I would still have a chance with the other guy.
I thought having a baby would fix all of this. All the old feelings for the other guy would magically disappear and life would be perfect. It was my point-of-no-return.
It doesn’t quite work that way, as I found out.
I was thrilled to be pregnant! It was exciting to be starting a family of our own. And Anthony couldn’t have been more ecstatic! He had always wanted to be a daddy. He had written about his desire to be a father in his journal during his mission.
Postpartum depression wasn’t something that I ever thought about until my birthing class when they talked about it a little bit. Now, I’m not one to feel invincible. I am very much aware that something… ANYTHING could happen to me or someone that I love at any time. And I often worry that something will happen. I’m pretty much just one giant ball of worry at any given moment. I’m always thinking of the worst case scenarios. However, I never really worried too much about postpartum. I didn’t consider myself at risk for depression… at least not then.
Now, when I look back, I think that I was already at high risk because of the emotional conflictions I was having within myself at the time.
So, baby was born, everything went beautifully, she was perfect, and we were elated! I went through the normal ‘baby blues’ kind of thing, got the nursing thing down after a couple of weeks, and we were just happy.
Except that I wasn’t.
Just before having my beautiful baby girl was when Andrea Yates (sp?) had drowned her 5 beautiful children in their bathtub. Do you remember this in the news? I remember looking at my perfect daughter and realizing something… this child is completely, 100% dependent on me. For everything!
I realized that I could do anything… and she would be powerless to stop me.
It was an overwhelming feeling. This feeling of being 100% responsible for another human being was just too much. It’s not that I wanted to hurt her, I loved her! I just knew I was in complete control.
At first, I thought this was all just part of the baby blues. But when it went on for more than just a couple of weeks I knew something was wrong. I tried to hide it until I just couldn’t anymore.
Finally, I told Anthony. He immediately gave me the first of many priesthood blessings for this issue.
When another week or so went by and things hadn’t changed much I decided to call my doctor. The nurse told me she didn’t think I had postpartum after explaining things to her. But I knew better. I tried to believe her but I knew…
There came a point that when I was upset with Anthony in the early weeks of my daughter’s life that I would think, I should just scratch her to make him mad.
Please don’t judge… I was in a place that wasn’t right for me. I absolutely knew that wasn’t the right thing to do and yet, I just wanted to get through to him. I knew that hurting her would get his attention… FAST! Thankfully, I never followed through with the thought.
{{Please know that I never, ever did anything to hurt my daughter.}}
He loved that little girl in a way that I didn’t know a father could love his daughter. It was truly magical to see in those moments that my head was in the right place. But in those moments that I wanted his attention all on me, it was all I could do not to throw a fit!
Things continued this way for several more weeks and I received a few more priesthood blessings from Anthony over that time. Those blessings helped me to realize something… I was jealous! Jealous… of a sweet, tiny little baby. A baby that I brought into this world. A baby that I love and adore! I believe the blessings absolutely worked the way that they were supposed to and I was able to recover without the help of medications. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t think they are necessary.
In one of the blessings I remember being told in one of the blessings to ‘not be idle’. I talked to Anthony about it afterwards and we decided together that I needed a hobby. Something to make me think happy thoughts. Something that kept my mind on the positive… not dwelling on the negative and allowing idle thoughts to enter my mind. So, I began scrapbooking… again. I fell in love with it and Miss K is the only one that has a scrapbook. Once I had two kids I was far too busy to scrapbook.  (I was never going to be THAT mom! But I totally am…)
Please, please, please if you are struggling with postpartum, PLEASE seek help from a professional. I wholeheartedly believe that the nurse I spoke with was wrong in telling me I wasn’t suffering. And yes, I was able to overcome it without medication but looking back, I think it really could have helped.
There is absolutely NO SHAME in confiding in your doctor about any postpartum issues. Ask questions, be aware, be HONEST!
I’ve been lucky to have not had any postpartum issues with any of the other babies. The chances of suffering it a second time are pretty high. So please seek help if you have any signs at all. Remember… NO SHAME!
Miss K has wanted to make popsicles all summer long. The other day she got her chance! She found a recipe on Pinterest that she wanted to try. It was extremely simple and ever so tasty! Mmm!
All you do is mix the following ingredients together, pour into your molds, freeze, and enjoy.
- 6 oz thawed orange juice concentrate
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup water
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
Source: A Night Owl Blog
Did you know that July is National Ice Cream Month? It makes sense. July… it’s HOT!
But I didn’t know there was a whole month devoted to the tasty, frozen treat. I first learned when I reviewed this book. After all, it was Ronald Reagan that declared July as National Ice Cream Month. What a great man!
And now you know… if you didn’t already.
Did you also know that Tillamook makes just about the best ice cream out there? It’s totally true! {Yes, they sent me coupons for free ice cream but only asked for honesty. The opinions made in this post are 100% mine.} I was first introduced to Tillamook when they asked me to help them out with a Back to School Healthy Eating Campaign (see my post here). They sent me a bunch of coupons for Tillamook products. Of course I had seen them before in the store but always passed on them for the less expensive brands.
All the products were great but once I got a taste of their ice cream…… OH BOY! I had a hard time going back to the store brand (which always seems to be on sale). So I was elated when they contacted me again to do a review of the ice cream. Our absolute favorite is the Marionberry Pie Ice Cream. WOW! Chocolate Peanut Butter is a close second. The kids and my father-in-law really like the Banana Split flavor. That one just didn’t do it for me but to each his own.
And then there’s the classic…. Vanilla. Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate that some folks prefer the old classic. Miss K, C, and B are some of them. But if I’m going to do plain ol’ plain… I prefer Vanilla Bean to regular Vanilla.
But there’s got to be something to go with it. So Sunday night we decided to pull out the dutch oven and make a cobbler.
We were all in heaven!! It’s just what we needed after a dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches because mom (that would be me) forgot to put the roast in before church. Whoops!
This is the simplest recipe you’ll ever find. Our good friend Kevin taught us the butter thing. Before that we had always used a can of Sprite. Never again, my friends.
- 1 yellow cake mix
- 1 large and one medium can of peaches
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
- Vanilla ice cream (Tillamook Vanilla Bean is best! )
Heat briquettes ahead of time. You’ll need 24 total.
Spray your dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray. Pour peaches into oven. We poured all the juice from the large can but drained the medium can.
Sprinkle cake mix evenly over the peaches.
Melt butter and pour slowly and evenly over cake mix trying to cover the entire thing. (It can be tricky.)
Place lid on oven. Cook outside with 10 briquettes underneath and 14 on top. That’s about the equivalent of a 350* oven. Cook for about 40 minutes.
Serve with ice cream and enjoy!
Gardening has never come naturally to me. Growing up my mom and dad grew tomatoes. Maybe they grew other things as well… I remember tomatoes. I was never really part of the process. Plants grew, it was brought inside (from either the garden or maybe the grocery store?), food was prepared, and I ate it. That’s what I know.
Anthony grew up with the master gardener himself… his dad. He grew everything. Anthony remembers rows and rows and rows of corn, lots of potatoes, tomatoes, squash, peppers and much more. He helped to till the dirt many times over the years. However, he doesn’t seem to have picked up the green thumb gene. It must skip a generation. It’s the only logical explanation.
I personally have only heard stories up until now about this infamous garden my FIL grew each year. My in laws moved from their home around the same time Anthony and I got married. They had lived in rentals until a couple years ago. This is the first year since then that they’ve had a garden to speak of. I’m jealous!
Since moving into our home over 7 years ago we have tried to grow a garden 5 times. Each time we got nothing! Actually that’s not exactly true…
Garden #1 – The plants grew and actually produced but we weren’t diligent enough to keep up with the weeds. Then we kind of forgot about the vegetables. Yep, we’re awesome!
Garden #2 – Tried a new thing (supposedly weedless) … Square Foot Gardening. We followed directions to a T! Went to the nursery for transplants, planted, things were growing well for a couple of weeks then we had a late freeze which stunted the growth of the plants. They all lived the duration of the respective plant’s life span and even got a few flowers but never produced anything. The plants were too small.
Garden #3 – SFG again… nothing grew. All were transplants again but didn’t grow.
Garden #4 – (last year) – same as the year before.
Garden #5 – (this year) – Tried a traditional garden again.
Well, it kind of worked. This time we did it all from seed. We started them inside where they all took off like champs!
But I knew better than to get my hopes up. All we knew was that we were desperate for something… ANYTHING… to grow. Which is why we grew radishes. (Yuck!)
HECK! We would have planted SPAM seeds if we thought they might grow!!! Seriously.
Anyway, I was right in not expecting much of my seedlings. Once I got them outside they all shriveled up and died. All but one…
BIG MAX! He’s so big I can’t even get him all in the picture. {That’s a lie… I just don’t want to step back far enough for you to see that we never got our grass put in. Shh!}
He is the winner! A pumpkin plant. The bees like him, too.
So, we may not get anything to actually eat from our garden but by golly, we’ll definitely have something to carve this Halloween!
But I did plant seeds again. This time I just planted directly into the ground. Most of it didn’t grow. They didn’t like my black thumb. But we did get a few things.
Corn…
(What is this? Is it flowering already and we won’t get corn? Anthony says it’s normal… I’m skeptical.)
Lettuce… (Italian Blend. Way too strong tasting for us.) See all that extra space around the lettuces? That’s where other plants were planted but didn’t grow.
Radishes… (no pics because they’ve already been harvested. We got a total of 4! I think I planted at least 15. )
Another variety of pumpkin… (Little Max)
These ones are in the SFG box. Growing slowly and slightly yellow.
Garden Beans… (no beans yet)
Oh, and look what Big Max is doing! Hooray!
But look what else he’s doing… Boo! Maybe it’s normal? {Please tell me it’s normal!}
**Things that were planted but never grew… tomatoes, carrots, peppers, spinach. Cucumber and Cantaloupe were also planted and actually started growing but didn’t stand a chance against whatever pest decided to come and eat them while they were still too young and innocent to defend themselves. Stupid bugs!**
Did you plant a garden this year?
B was a beast to potty train! We started trying several months ago but he just wasn’t going for it.
He absolutely could, but he absolutely would not!
It was extremely frustrating. He would be wearing big boy underwear, wet in them without telling anyone, then go change his pants. We were constantly walking in random puddles on the floor and his bedroom smelled like a urinal.
It was bad!
So… back in diapers he went!
And then one day a couple weeks ago he just decided, on his own terms, that he was going to be a big boy and start using the potty. He had a few accidents here and there but nothing like before. We promised him that if he didn’t have any accidents at all for a week we would buy him a new bike. He has admired C’s since Christmas.
Long story short… he did it!!
And now he has a new bike. It’s not the Lightning McQueen bike he preferred… we may have steered his little eyes in another direction when we saw the price difference.
And of course he needed a new helmet to go with it. What a stud! These pics were taken Sunday evening in the parking lot of the church. On the way home he said, “I like my new bike. I love it! It’s my favorite toy.” And he was so proud of himself when he fell and just brushed it off and hopped right back on the bike.
One more important thing to note is that Mr. C is now riding a two wheeler! He didn’t do the training wheels very long at all. About a month and a half ago we were at the church riding bikes when one of his training wheels fell off. He seemed to do just fine without it so Anthony took the other one off and that was that! It was pretty incredible. C never even needed anyone to hold the back of the seat.
It’s amazing how quickly these little boys are growing. I love them so much!
I don’t know about your neck of the woods but here in mine… IT HAS BEEN HOT!
I’ve always said that I much prefer the cold to the heat. I’m pretty much a bear in reverse. Hibernation happens during the summer months for me. Otherwise I turn into the Wicked Witch of the West.
Seriously…
Don’t ask Anthony about the Lagoon incident. It was reeeaaaally hot that day. The end.
So anyway, the nights have been nice lately. A little thunderstorm rolls in, cools things off a bit, don’t have to worry about watering the lawn or the pathetic garden. And then it’s hot again.
But I really didn’t mean for this post to be about the weather. Let’s talk burgers!
Anthony has perfected the art of burger grilling. He is the burger master! The king! It all started when we kept seeing pins on Pinterest with these delectable burgers. We’d look at the recipe and think… hmmm, we should try that someday.
And then one day we did. There was no looking back from there.
So, although I couldn’t even begin to tell you which one was ‘the one’ that we actually went for (they were all so similar), I can tell you that Anthony has got this down to a science. No true measurements or anything just one of those “to taste” recipes, really. And of course his secret ingredient… BACON!
And so, for your viewing (and tasting) pleasure, I present to you…. THE PERFECT BURGER!!
And some Sun Chips but really, you could switch that out for whatever… totally optional.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- Ground Beef (he likes to use 85/15)
- Mozzarella and/or Pepper Jack cheese, shredded
- Seasoning salt
- BBQ Sauce (Anthony swears it has to be Jack Daniels Original No. 7)
- Bacon, cooked 3/4 of the way and chopped
- Bacon Grease
Make sure the grill isn’t too hot. These need to cook fairly slow so that the inside is done at the same time as the outside. You don’t want these babies to burn! Nothing worse than having the outside charcoaled and the inside still red.
Cook bacon about 3/4 of the way. Not to the point of crispy. Chop into small pieces. OH and save the GREASE! Anthony swears by this!
For every pound of ground beef you’ll add approximately 1/4 to 1/2 lb. bacon, 4-8 oz. cheese (whichever kind you prefer), 1 or 2 Tablespoons Seasoning Salt, and 1/2 to 3/4 of a bottle of BBQ sauce. Then get your hands in there and just mix it all up! It’s a messy process.
Form into patties. One pound makes exactly 7 burgers for us. This is just the right amount for my family. The burgers are thick! Form a deep well in the middle, this is important!
Once burgers are on the grill pour bacon grease into the well.
Flip when that side is done (after a few minutes) and continue cooking on the other side. Obviously, right? (You never know… there are people that sue McDonald’s for having hot coffee… don’t most people prefer it that way? Just sayin’.)
These burgers are so tender they literally fall apart in your mouth! I think it’s the slow cooking that does it. OH MAN! They are GOOOOOD!
Seriously, go make them. Enjoy!
K and A had a dance recital at the end of May. They both did great!
And in order to get her hair looking Annie-ish A had to wear her hair like so… (She hated it!)
K in her clogging performance.
And her ballet dance.
K was thrilled to start a new dancing adventure… on POINTE SHOES! Classes started this summer and she couldn’t be happier about it.
This was a quick pic taken right before she was leaving for a Super Hero party.
… THIS Super Hero Party to be exact. They all left as ordinary people leading ordinary lives but they came back all hero-ed up!
My little Sasser turned 8 in June.
She had a fun little party with some friends.
She also got baptized just this past Saturday. Her sisters gave the opening and closing prayers, Grandma H. gave a great talk on Baptism, and Aunt Wendi gave another great talk on the Holy Ghost.
The three of us on her baptism day. Probably can’t tell but I’m sporting braces these days. I hate them… the end!
The girls outside our church on the 4th of July. Our ward has a breakfast every year. This year, A got to sing the National Anthem and she did great!
C is throwing a fit in this one. I couldn’t get the boys to stand with the girls for a pic.
This was back in April (or May?)… Anthony and his sister did a triathlon. Yeah, it pretty much kicked their butts! Neither of them were very confident with the swimming portion.
And then they ran the Ragnar with our good friend, Kevin just a couple weeks later.
The one in the middle is Kevin and Tiffany’s son. All three of them are being The Hulk… hence, no shirts.
And this little guy is growing up way too fast!
TLC Book Tours gave my family the opportunity to review this book.
Ronald Reagan just so happens to be one of my favorite presidents so I was happy to do it! I learned several things about him that I didn’t already know. For one, I had no idea that was married to someone else before Nancy.
It was fun for the kids to learn about him as well. They loved that he had so many different jobs (including acting) before he was the President.
I knew that he was an actor but do you know how many different movies he was in? I was shocked when I found out! Nope, not gonna tell, you’ll have to read the book to find out. But it’s way more than the 2 or 3 I thought it was…..
President Reagan had a great sense of humor and great insight for our country. We could definitely use a few more leaders like him.
Truly, this book was a great read. Story format instead of poetry this time. The kids missed spotting the hidden object as in past books I’ve reviewed but this is a different author than the others. We really did enjoy it. And there are a lot of extra goodies at the end. Kind of like Bonus Features! I would be ok with a book like this about every president!
**I was given this book at no charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed herein are my own. I was not required to give a positive review.
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My Goal: To become SuperMom, SuperWife, and official Domestic Diva! Am I there yet?
Welcome to my little corner of the web. My name is Brooke and this is my zoo... er, family. Anthony is my handsome husband. We have been blessed with 6 beautiful children. 3 girls, 3 boys... in that order. They are currently ages 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, and 4 months.
I blog about whatever I want. Sometimes it's a recipe, a random thought, real life, homeschool (yep, we're crazy like that), and my faith.
Hope you'll check back often!
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