Bye Bye, Grandma Hurt

Bye, bye Grandma Hurt, I am sure going to miss you. Thank you so much for living such a wonderful life and sharing it with all of us. Thank you for taking me in one summer and letting me stay with you and Grandpa up on your farm. I had so much fun milking the goats and going out to the diner for breakfast. I think I got addicted to the chocolate and marshmallow combination becuse of you. You always had the best snacks in your cupboard and you always shared them with us. I remember going out on your boat and laying on the net while all of our cousins were there and looking into the water and watching the jellyfish under the water as the boat sailed past. I think that was the day I had my first marshmallow pie. They always remind me of you. I also remember you when I smell molasas. Wierd, I know, but it was that same summer while I was visiting you that you and grandpa would pour molasas into the baby goats milk and put it into bottles and feed the babies. So now, when I make anything with molasas memories of you pour into my mind. Another thing that reminds me of you is when I smell what I call "goats." but I think it is more a combination of ciggarette smoke and dirt/manure (something). That reminds me of you and again that summer that I got to spend with you. You would be supprised how often I smell "goats." You were always a strong woman and I was always amazed at how you had such skinny legs. I always thought they were skinny. But then I watched you do all the things you did like lift Grandpa into his car chair and lift things for the farm and always knew you were supper strong. And I still can't do a word puzzle, you could do the whole word puzzle in the time it took me to guess the correct answer for the first two word problems. I want to do word puzzles to help me keep my mind bright like you did, but I don't have the patience to practice. I will have to start with easier ones I guess. I love you Grandma Hurt, wait for me and we will have fun again together soon. Love, Jana

In memory of Bonnie Lucille Hurt

5-24-1926

7-27-2009

Quick Tips for Working in the Kitchen

OK, so Being a wife, a mother, and a full-time speech pathology assistant is wearing me thin. I am also about to become a full-time student too. I come home after a long day at work and I don't want to cook, clean, or do anything for that matter. All I do want to do is play with my son who is ready to go to bed one to two hours after I get him home. So, we do our evening routine then I don't get to see him again till the next morning right before he and I go back to school. I am so tired of this routine not to mention that the hot dogs that I'm pulling out of the freezer are starting to show on my waist line. I needed a plan of action, I needed to do some research, and I still need help from all of my friends. That is where you come in. I have gone to different websites and found the most helpful info and pulled it all together to make this list of quick tips for working in the kitchen. I thought I would share what I found with all of my friends and ask them to share with me what works in their kitchen under the comments section of this blog. By the way I already hate to cook and we don't eat processed food in our house (well, besides hot dogs for me and burritos for my husband). We have been eating too much of those things and want to step away from them. So, the prepackaged lasagna etc. will not work (besides I can't eat wheat). 1. Make a Menu! This will save you from looking in the fridge every night wondering what to make. It will also help you save money, trips to the store, and help with the other time saving tips I’m about to give. 2. Pre prep. After getting your groceries that will full fill your menu, get out your food processor and cut your onions, bell peppers, carrots, celery, etc (however, not all veggies are meant to do this so you decide which can handle a week being cut up) most of these items can be placed in the freezer for longer storage. Dice them chop them or leave them sliced before you put them in the freezer. Slice and cube tomatoes store in a container of your choice (do not freeze these, however, they can be left in the fridge). 3. Brown beef and boil chicken. Divide it into one pound or half pound and place in storage containers and store in the freezer for later use. Do not over cook this since you will want to season it the way you want to later. You can also freeze one cup portions of the broth from the boiled chicken and save them for later (money, not time saver). 4. Start with a dish washer that is empty or has enough room for dirty dinner dishes and clean/uncluttered counters. 5. Wear an apron wipe your hands on this and put a towel in its ties so you always have that towel close by to wipe up those spills. 6. Get out all ingredients before you start. If you have a helper who likes to go behind you and clean up like I do, make sure you both know where the finished and unused piles are. 7. Clean as you go. Wipe counters, rinse dishes; food is easier to get off when it is fresh and before it has time to harden and set. Take the time to load the dish washer when you are waiting for things to boil or simmer. Clean knives and put them away after you are finished using them. You will always know where they are when you need them again. They also won’t become health hazards on the counter or in the sink. 8. Put out paper (news paper, paper towels, etc.) under the area you will be peeling potatoes, cucumbers, etc. When you have finished gather the paper and throw it all in the trash. (I wish I would have known this before I put my disposal through the wringer.) 9. Have a garbage can (a plastic coffee container, a bowl, a huge tupperware, you get the idea). Place all the garbage in here while you prep and cook. Empty it after you finish cooking and it will save you all of your back and forth trips to the trash. Place the container in the dishwasher and use it the next time you cook. 10. Know where all of your recipes are. Photo copy all of your favorite recipes and put them in one binder you can even add tabs, put them in categories, go nuts if you like. My husband and I have found that if we put them in plastic they last longer and can wipe off easier. Please add your favorite time saving tip to the comment section. Thank you!

BFND

Tim loves to play Lacross. He thinks it is the only suitable sport. That is why he played in his alumni game January 3, 2009. This game is played every year. The graduated classes against the current Ironmen team. Tim got all ready and very excited. He trained for the event http://training50k.blogspot.com/ and bought a few essentials for it. Santa even brought a brand new stick for Timmie for Christmas. So Tim was very excited.

We all went to the game to watch (Grammy, Shelly, Timmie and Me). We met up with his best friends from High school Mike and Brian. Mike brought his wife Jessica. Brian brought his family Tina, Tim's cousin, and Dominic (18 mos). Tim also invited Grant, Tina's brother, to play. He brought his main squeeze Liz and his Dad (Ted, Tim's uncle). We all sat around on a blanket while the boys played. It was fun. We watched as best we could with a dog and two toddlers but can you believe it, the old guys won! It was very exciting!! Good job boys!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!!! This year has gone by too fast. Timmie is one!!! He is such a joy to have in our family he really has changed things up for Tim and me. Timmie noticed I hadn't sent out Christmas cards yet so he wanted to send a letter to Santa to make sure everyone knew how our family was doing. Please read the letter from Timmie

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We hope that everyones life has been good this year and that they can find more joy than fault. May next year bring joy to you and your family.

Timmies B-day

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One Smart Baby

OK so everyone that meets my son has told me what an alert little guy I have. "He is so smart" most of them will say. I don't know if they say that to all mothers but I think it is very true. So, we have been working on keeping Timmie out of the kitchen so that he won't get into the dog bowl. Everytime he makes it into the kitchen he makes a bee line straight to the her food bowl. So, I've decided to be cheap and try to set up a barrier to keep him out without buying a safety gate. My first attempt was with two chairs placed side by side. He tolerated those chairs for about 3 days then sudenly he found out he could go under them by putting his head down and scooting forward at the same time past the cross bars. He often bumped his head and would let out a little whine but I let him do it so he knew he could be successful, because he had figured it out. My next attempt was with two more chairs with lower cross bars I thought this will be good because he can't keep his head down that low and scoot through. So three more days passed and vuala he was through again. This time, he went over the cross bars. There was a little less whining with this one because there was more room overhead but it must have been a little uncomfortable at his mid-section because he had to throw his hips over the bar which I think is a little difficult, at least it looks that way.

My third attempt was today. I put two boxes side by side and wedged them in tightly between the wall and the couch. By the end of today he figured out how to push through it. I think I need to go get the book about you can't go over it, you can't go under it, got to through it. It might become one of his favorite book for a while. I also need to stop being cheap and go get one of those security gates. I just worry that it will be no good with this smart and strong little guy.

CrossFit Rules!

Hey everyone,

Well I am going on week 4 with crossfit and I have seen a lot of changes in my endurance and strength. I ran a total of three days each being 6 or more miles . I felt srtong on all of them except for Saturdady's run, I felt complete drain due to lack of fuel. So off to hammergel for so fuel. But anyways Crossfit is really awesome. Last week we did three times a week

WOD(workout of the Day) Monday

17 Slamballs 1 Push-up Slamballs count down and push ups count up!

Ended up doing 150 push-ups that day. Time 26 min.

Tuesday

Run 400 m, 21 thrusters, 12 jumping pulls

11 min 51 secs

Thursday

run 400 m, 21 bench press (65 lbs) for time

8 min and 21 secs

Monday (today)

Assesment Day

Push Press

3-3-3-3-3-3

94lbs

Jana has been doing the boot camp at 5 am mon, wed, fri

Here are some pictures a week ago.

Crossfit Work out!!!

Hey everyone! Tim here. I have started a new workout program with a group called crossfit! It is really awesome because we never do the same work out until a month later. We also workout in a garage! That is the best part of it. No fancy machine or club memberships it is just plain and raw. It is great fun! You work really hard for 15 - 20 min and then you are done. I will go on my third week and I am very excited about the result that I have seen. Anyways we will post pictures sooon . Later! Oh yeah Jana is going to do the crossfit boot camp!

Our Salt Lake City Trip

We drove from Avon, CO to Salt Lake City, UT. My brother a TSA worker picked us up at the airport where we dropped off our rental car. When he came to meet us at the car rental place I didn’t even recognize my “little” brother in his uniform I was ready to have to get removed from the premises the way he was approaching us (I wasn’t expecting to see him yet since he was still on duty). But I finaly got to show my son who he had hair like in person.

The first day we went to “This is the Place” a monument and Old Town on the out skirts of the city. Then we had to go to BYU down in Provo for Tim’s sake so he could know what it is all about. He said it was like a blast from the past almost like the 50’s (all the girls would have been wearing mid-length skirts if we really had been there then) but he felt culture shock since all the girls were actually wearing clothing that covered their bodies and he also saw families and pregnant college women (it was completely different than North Texas). Almost like an entire school institute.

The next day we had my parents watch Timmie and David, Tim and I got to go to the SLC Temple. It was great! We met back up with my parents and saw temple square via their tour. We had dinner at the Lions House (a house that Brigham Young owned) and we got some of their world famous deserts.

We also got to go to some awesome burger joints. I think the best place on earth to get a shake is in Utah they always have fresh ingredients to put in them and almost anything you can think of. Most of the burger joints (the good ones anyway) also make their fries on site. But it is a tradition for my husband and me to search out “good” burger joints to visit and there is a plethora in SLC.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

New Appliences

We just got our new appliances installed. We had to buy a new stove since the outer glass spontaneously combusted one day last summer. We waited to buy new ones because A) it was still o.k. for Tim and I to use it B) we wanted to pay for it out of pocket C) Texas has a tax free weekend on energy star appliances. So it just so happened that the tax free weekend correlated with Timmies increased mobility, which was forcing us to be required to get a new oven for safety reasons.

We decided to get the works (a new oven, microwave, and dishwasher) in order to match our white fridge. The white really opened up our kitchen and we think it looks great! We got great deals on everything. The thing that I like the most is the stove top has a central burner and skillet. I told my husband one morning that I would have the pancakes done in 20 min and from start (when I told him) to finish (putting the last pancake on the plate) I was finished in 20 min (our last oven it would have taken at least an hour just to cook all the pancakes). I also haggled the price of our dishwasher which was tax free (it was the only energy star appliance). Next we are going to have to buy new counter tops to replace the off white Formica we currently have.

Our Trip to Colorado

This was Timmies first ride on an airplane. He was so good! He had Grammy to keep him happy and occupied.

We went to Colorado and left our practicly sea level home to hike in the mountains. We got this pack just for this trip. The two Tim's love it so much Daddy even uses it to go for walks at home.

We got to do lots of fun things while in CO like have picknics, hike, view historic sites. We even did some window shopping, Vail Valley is a tourist trap a pair of womens chords were $230, So there was not too much buying happening. Timmie got completely spoiled, with three grandparents there and both parents to dote on him 24/7. It is so hard not to since he is so cute.

The weather turned really cold midway through our stay and it went from shorts and t-shirts to jackets and long pants. One day the change in weather was so drastic that we had to stop at a thrift store and get Timmie a lined rain jacket and fleece pants so that he wouldn't freeze. We had already changed him that morning from his shorts and t-shirt to long pants and shirt. After we went to Colorado we went to Salt Lake City. But I will have to do another posting for that one since I don't have any of the pictures yet. Grammy did not join us in Salt Lake but we still had fun

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I finally did it!

Ok, I finally did it. Thank you to the constant pushing of my two older sisters I started my own family blog. With their own blogs started they kept insisting that I start my own blog. I hope I have time for this.